Worth Waiting For
by Warviben
Summary: A student new to Hogwarts will change Snape's and Harry's lives in ways they could never have imagined.
1. Chapter 1

**Worth Waiting For**

by warviben

**Summary**: A student new to Hogwarts will change Snape's and Harry's lives in ways they could never have imagined.

**Warnings**: This fic contains detailed descriptions of sexual encounters. Some of them are hetero- and some are male/male/female. If this type of thing is not for you, I suggest you stop reading now.

**Not really a warning (more a heads-up)**: There is an OC that plays a prominent role in this fic. I know that turns some people off. I don't like most of them myself, but you can't always control what ideas pop into your head and stay there until you accede to their demands that you write them down. I warn you so that if you absolutely hate OC's, you can stop now. If you're willing to give this one a chance, I can promise you lots of Harry/Snape interaction, because it's what I do.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters (well, most of them anyway). If you're reading this, you likely know that.

Chapter 1

Five minutes into the DADA lesson, all sound ceased when the classroom door opened and Hogwarts' newest student walked in, late yet again. All eyes were upon her, including those of Professor Severus Snape, as she quietly took a seat in the back of the room, put her bag down, and removed her text book. She set the book on her desk and looked up, pointedly ignoring her classmates' curious stares.

"Page sixty-seven, Miss Talmadge," Snape said quietly. The pretty brown-haired girl opened her text to the stated page and stared down at it.

As Snape continued with his lesson, as though nothing had happened, half of the class, those that were Gryffindors, couldn't help but grumble silently at the unfairness of it all. Had one of _them_ wandered into his classroom five minutes late (hell, five _seconds _late), they'd have lost House points and would likely be facing detention. Snape's newest Slytherin, like all those that had come before, was receiving special treatment. You'd think they'd be used to it by now, in their sixth year here, but it still grated. To be entirely fair to Snape, he wasn't the only one showing the girl special consideration.

Harry watched the new girl out of the corner of his eye. She'd been here a week, and he'd yet to hear her open her mouth. They shared three classes, which she routinely ghosted into minutes after each class had begun, garnering no words of reproach from any of their teachers, including McGonagall. No one seemed to know anything about her – where she'd come from, where her family lived, even her first name.

Harry turned his attention back to the front of the room before Snape caught him wool-gathering (which would assuredly earn _him_ a detention), telling himself that this Slytherin was just like every other Slytherin – not worth the time.

Ten minutes later, he was proven wrong.

"Professor," Draco Malfoy drawled. "Potter's using a hex you specifically told us not to use."

"I am not!" Harry said, anger rising immediately. For reasons known only to Snape, he'd partnered Harry and Malfoy for this exercise. He'd had to know it would end like this – apparently he liked the two of them at each other's throats.

Snape swooped over immediately. "Potter," he said, his voice silky smooth, "it took you only," Snape consulted his watch, "nine and a half minutes to cheat."

"I did no such thing!" Harry said, his voice rising.

"But why would Mr. Malfoy say that you did?"

"Oh, I don't know – because he's a lying prat, maybe," Harry suggested.

"Tsk tsk," Snape said, shaking his head sadly. "Name-calling. How immature. Ten points from Gryffindor. And another fifty for cheating on the assignment."

"Fifty?" echoed the Gryffindor members of the class in outrage as the other Slytherins looked on with smug glee.

"He didn't do it," a voice said loudly from the back of the room.

Snape turned to the perpetually late student who always sat in the back. "Miss Talmadge, you would do well not to interfere in things you do not understand."

"What I understand," she said, her voice firm, "is that you've unfairly punished him for something he didn't do. I was watching. He used a jelly legs curse. That was all." Now that she was speaking, it was obvious to all that she had an accent – American, perhaps?

Snape stared her down. To her credit, she stared right back. The rest of the class watched in drop-jawed fascination.

"Miss Talmadge, I would advise you to be silent," Snape warned. Anyone else in the room, hell in the _school_, would have known to quit while they were ahead.

"Then give him back his points," she countered, not backing down an inch.

Those close enough to see a vein throbbing in Snape's temple backed away as far as they could from the seething potions master. Snape was unaccustomed to open defiance like this. "You and I will discuss your attitude tonight, Miss Talmadge. My office. Eight o'clock. Do _not_ be late."

"I look forward to it," she said.

"Get back to it! All of you!" Snape snarled, turning his back on his troublesome new Slytherin.

##########

Harry waited outside the classroom, waiting for her, hoping Snape wouldn't come out instead. Finally, when the hallway was empty of others, she emerged, stopping short at the sight of him there. "Hello," she said.

"Hi," Harry said. "I'm Harry Potter."

"Tevis Talmadge," she returned.

"Can I walk you to your next class?"

"I have a free period."

"Me, too. Care to take a walk?"

"Outside?" she inquired.

"Sure."

The October air was crisp and cool as they walked beside the lake.

"I just wanted to thank you for what you tried to do in there," Harry said.

"I couldn't let that go without saying something. Why does that Malfoy boy hate you enough to lie like that? And why did Professor Snape believe him so quickly?"

"That's a long story," Harry told her. "We all go way back. Dislike has been mutual since the day we met. Since _before_ we met with regard to Snape. Where are you from?"

The US," she said, "in case you couldn't tell by my accent. My father's an Air Force pilot. He was transferred to Lakenheath Air Force Base recently, which is how I ended up here."

"Did you attend a magical school back home?"

"Mm hmm," she confirmed. "The Southern California School of Magic."

"Not like here, I bet," Harry guessed.

"Not much," she confirmed. "The magic's the same, just some of the terms are different. Weather's much nicer there."

"Oh, just wait if you want to see bad weather," Harry said, thinking of Hogwarts in January.

"Great. Something to look forward to! And we didn't wear robes there. Too warm. I kind of hate these things," she said, shaking her robe. She'd tried to argue her way out of wearing robes when she'd come here, but Dumbledore had been insistent. She'd won the argument about writing with a quill, though. There was simply no good reason why a witch couldn't write with a pen.

"Do you play quidditch there?"

"No. We play broomball. It's like baseball on brooms. You know baseball?"

"A little," Harry said.

"I played outfield, so it's a little like you being a seeker." Harry was pleased that she seemed to know enough about him to know what position he played on the team. "And we played against other schools instead of houses. See, schools back home have a lot fewer students in them, but there are more schools. There are three in California alone. Most of the kids don't board – they commute from home. I boarded because of my dad. We had a house there, but he was gone a lot."

"So how did you travel? Can you apparate?"

"Floo," she said, not really answering his second question.

"Ah. What else is different?"

"Let's see." She thought for a moment. "It's an eight-year program of study, rather than seven. And the curriculum is more diverse – we have classes in American and World History, mathematics, literature. And fitting in in the Muggle world. There are no solely wizarding communities in the US, so it's important to learn how to live among Muggles without calling attention to yourself. And my school was just a school, not an old castle."

"Sounds a lot different," Harry noted.

"Mmm," Tevis agreed.

"Do you miss it?"

Tevis shrugged. "Some things I do. I really like this castle, though. I'd like to be able to explore it, all by myself. But I moved around so much when I was a kid that I never really got used to being any one place too long. Although I was at SoCal for two years, and I really did like it there."

"Where else have you lived?"

"Let's see, before Edwards Air Force Base, Dad was stationed at Aviano Air Base in Italy. I went to school for two years there. Before that was Moron Air Base in Spain. Before that, Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. There were brief stops along the way at Ramstein in Germany, MacDill in Florida, and Grand Forks in North Dakota. I think that's all."

"That's _all_?" To Harry, her life seemed exotic. He'd been to England and Scotland. Period.

Tevis shrugged. "The life of a military child."

They walked for a time in silence. Tevis stopped and grabbed Harry's berobed arm when the giant squid broke the surface of the water. "Jesus! I thought it was Nessie!" she breathed.

"Nah. Just the giant squid," Harry said, proud that Hogwarts had something this world traveler had never seen.

They resumed walking again.

"Tevis. That's an unusual name. How do you spell it?"

"T-E-V-I-S."

"Hmmm. I would have guessed that would be pronounced Tee-vis."

"Nope. Short 'e'. I think my mother made it up."

"Is your mom with your dad?"

"No. My mom died when I was five. Cancer."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Harry sympathized. "I'm also sorry you got detention because of me," he offered after a moment.

"Don't be. I didn't do it totally for you."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I did what I did for a couple of reasons. I couldn't just sit by and watch him be so unfair to you. I waited for someone else to speak up – your friends, other Gryffindors, _someone_ – but when no one did, I had to say something."

"They all know it would have been pointless and would likely have made it worse. _You_ should have been sorted into Gryffindor," he noted with a smile. "Foolishly jumping in to protect someone else is definitely _not _a Slytherin trait."

"I _wasn't _sorted. They put me in Slytherin because that was the house with the fewest students."

"Lucky you," Harry said drily. "You said there were a couple of reasons."

Tevis smiled shyly. "You wouldn't understand."

"I certainly won't if you don't tell me."

They walked for a moment in silence until Tevis finally said, "I have the gift of knowing."

"The gift of what?"

"You've never heard of it?" At Harry's head shake, she said, "I'm not surprised. It's pretty rare. Some call it Providentia. Sometimes I . . . know things about people. About their futures."

"Know things? Like what things?"

"Well, why don't I show you? Give me your hand." Tevis stopped, closed her eyes, and took hold of Harry's hand.

_Harry Potter, appearing perhaps 40 years old, sits in a maroon velvet arm chair, a glass of red wine in one hand, beside a crackling fire. He is holding the _Daily Prophet_ in his other hand, and he is reading. After a moment, he sets his wine glass on a small square table beside the chair and turns a page in the paper. Harry appears in good health and he seems content._

After several seconds of silence, Tevis let go of Harry's hand and opened her eyes. "The very first time I touch someone new, I get a . . . vision, for lack of a better word, about their future. A brief glimpse into their life. Sometimes it's fairly close in time, like tomorrow, or sometimes it's years in the future. Sometimes it's very hard to tell just when the vision is taking place. For instance, when I first touched Professor Dumbledore, I saw him stroking a large scarlet bird and feeding it some kind of treat."

"Fawkes," Harry said. "What did you see when you touched me?"

"I saw you, maybe twenty years from now, sitting in an armchair in front of a fire. You were reading the newspaper."

Harry waited for more, but there apparently wasn't any. "That's it?"

"That's it," Tevis said with a shrug. "I can't control what it shows me."

"And how accurate is this gift?"

Tevis shrugged again. "It's hard to say. The visions I've had are far enough in the future that they haven't been confirmed yet. I have a journal where I record every vision that I have. It's a magical journal, of course, and once a vision has actually happened, the date that it happens is magically recorded. My grandmother had the gift – it's hereditary – and she was never wrong. Every one of her visions came to pass, although some of them weren't confirmed until after her death."

"Well, it's comforting to know that I'll be alive twenty years from now," Harry said, wishing he could believe in what she was telling him. It really would be a comfort, if he _could _believe, to know that he would survive that long.

"Could be it's not exactly twenty," Tevis pointed out. "Looked like you were in your mid- to late-thirties."

"Well, I'll take nineteen, too," he said, smiling. "That's really cool, but I don't see how that has anything to do with your detention."

"This is the part you won't understand, I suspect. The first night I was here, when I was told that I'd be in Slytherin, the Headmaster took me down to the dungeon to meet Professor Snape. When I first met him, I . . . felt something."

"I know that feeling," Harry muttered, remembering how his scar had ached the first time he'd seen Snape on _his _first day here. Of course, it turned out his scar was reacting to the presence of Professor Quirrell, but still . . .

"It was a . . . connection . . . between us. This is going to sound strange. He's so much older than I am."

"Please don't say what I think you're going to say," Harry moaned. He closed his eyes, willing her not to confess what he so badly didn't want to hear.

"I think I fell in love with him right then," she said, as though he hadn't spoken.

Harry's stomach roiled as though it wanted to vomit.

"But it was more than that," she continued. "When he shook my hand, I saw."

"Saw what?" he asked when she didn't elaborate.

"I saw him, and me. We were eating dinner. There were candles on the table. And yellow flowers. He was holding my hand on top of the table. He said, 'Happy Anniversary, Darling'."

Okay. Now he _was _going to sick up. "But he's . . . so _old_, and he's . . . a teacher . . . He can't . . . He'd get . . ."

"I know all that," she said, as though Harry had spoken in completely sensible full sentences. "But it doesn't change what I saw."

"So are you going to tell him all this tonight?"

Tevis nodded. "Some of it."

"You're mad! He'll tear you to shreds! Please, Tevis, don't do this!"

"I have to," she said. "I don't want to hide it. He'll resist at first, of course, for all of the reasons you mentioned. But he'll come around eventually. I know he will. I saw it."

"Listen," Harry said. "I'm going to worry about you now. Can you meet me after your detention, so I'll know he doesn't kill you or hex you or expel you or something?"

"Won't you get in trouble for being out late?"

"I have an invisibility cloak. I can hide under it until you arrive. I'll meet you outside the Slytherin common room."

"Oh, I don't live there. I have a separate room on the fifth floor. Beside the prefect's bathroom. It's actually a suite of rooms."

Okay, now _that _really wasn't fair. "Why? And now that you mention it, why don't you ever get in trouble for being late to class?"

"I have enochlophobia."

"Is that another gift?"

Tevis snorted. "Definitely not. It's a fear of crowds. When Professor Dumbledore learned of my condition, he allowed me to be late for class. The teachers all know about it. I wait until the corridors are empty to go to class, and I stay behind for a few minutes until they're empty again at the end of the class. I eat breakfast before almost everyone else, and I eat lunch and supper after almost everyone else. And I get my own room." She'd been assigned a suite of rooms normally used by distinguished guests.

"That would be very convenient if you had a boyfriend," Harry noted wistfully, his own vague hopes in that regard crushed. "I mean a boyfriend who didn't already have his own office and rooms because he's a _teacher_!" Harry shuddered.

"You're very sweet to be concerned, but I'll be fine."

"I'll sleep better knowing you're okay. Can I meet you?"

"You can. Thank you, Harry. You're my first friend here."

"I hope I'm not your last," Harry said under his breath.

##########

Tevis knocked on Snape's office door and entered when he bid her do so. She closed the door behind her.

Snape did not look up. "You're early, Miss Talmadge. Please have a seat for a few minutes while I finish marking these papers."

Tevis sat on the edge of the chair in front of Snape's desk. She sat calmly for about ten seconds before she began to drum her heels on the floor. She either didn't see Snape's look of annoyance, or she ignored it.

"Miss Talmadge," he said sternly.

"Oh, sorry," she said, and stilled her feet. After another few seconds, she began to twirl her wand around her hand, like a baton, gold sparks shooting out in a large circle from the end. Again Snape looked up, annoyed.

"Miss Talmadge!" he snapped.

"Oh, right," she said, slapping her wand against her leg and ending the fireworks show. "Sorry."

"Sit quietly," he ordered and returned to his work.

Tevis did, for all of twenty seconds, then the multitude of interesting things Snape kept on his shelves became very compelling, and she got up and went to get a closer look at them. Snape spared her a glance, wondering if she was incapable of following a simple instruction, then turned his attention back to the horrid first-year essays. At least she was being quiet.

"Do these things have actual purpose, or do you keep them here to creep people out?"

"This will be completed a lot more quickly if you do not continually interrupt me!"

Tevis turned her attention back to the jars. A minute later, she said, "Is this a two-headed frog?"

Snape sighed in exasperation and tossed his quill down. Might as well get this over with. He needed a break from the essays anyway. The first-years seemed to get more and more stupid with each passing year. Or maybe he was getting older and less tolerant. No, they were definitely more stupid.

"Sit down, Miss Talmadge. I'd like to discuss your actions in class today."

Tevis sat on the edge of the seat again.

Snape steepled his fingers together and looked at her over the top of them. She looked right back with her large brown eyes.

"You're new here," Snape started. "So let me explain some things. Those of us in Slytherin pride ourselves on our unity. We are all brothers and sisters, and we do not turn on each other, especially in front of others, _especially _in front of Gryffindors."

"Well, first of all," Tevis said pleasantly. "I'm a Slytherin by name only. I was not sorted into your house, but placed there merely for the sake of convenience. Not one of your Slytherins has approached me in a friendly manner since my arrival here. In fact, they've all been rather cold. I don't know why that is. Perhaps they, like some back home, value a person's parentage more than that person's own merits. I cannot say. What I can say is that, so far, I've found no reason to be loyal to any of them."

Snape started to speak, but Tevis interrupted his interruption. "There's more. May I finish?"

Cheeky little thing, he thought, but he nodded his acquiescence.

"Secondly, I don't like bullies. And it seems clear to me that Malfoy is a bully. And so, I'm sorry to say, are you."

Snape was startled enough by this accusation to say, "Me? You think _I'm _a bully?"

"Yes, I do. You could have checked his wand, but you so obviously delighted in taking points from Harry on Malfoy's word, which _was _a lie by the way, and you took more points when he stood up for himself. You're in a position of power over him, and you're using it to humiliate and anger him, and there's nothing he can do about it. _That's _a bully."

"'Harry', is it?"

"Yes. He introduced himself to me after class. He's the first person to really talk to me since I got here. Part of that is my fault because I don't mingle, but there it is. He's very nice. He was worried about my coming here tonight."

"Indeed?" Snape said with a lift of his eyebrow. "And why would that be?"

"We'll get to that later."

Snape's eyebrow climbed higher. Who was running this detention – him or her?

"So where was I? Oh, yes. I don't like bullies. And Slytherin seems to have more than its share."

Snape stared at her over his large nose. "Anything else you wish to share about Slytherin?"

"Yes. I detest snakes. That's it."

Snape stared at her again. He couldn't figure this girl out. Most students were afraid of him, even those in his own house, especially when they were new to the school and to him. But this impertinent child hadn't shown one bit of fear or intimidation. He tried his very best sneer out on her, and she raised an eyebrow quizzically in return, appearing much more amused than frightened.

"Tell me, Miss Talmadge, did your former school encourage its students to disrespect its staff?" he asked.

"No, sir. They encouraged an open and free exchange of ideas. And they encouraged us to question everything. But it was done respectfully and appropriately. Why? Do you feel as though I've been disrespectful? If so, I apologize. That was not my intention. I merely stated what I saw in your classroom, as I assumed you didn't have enough eyes to see everywhere at once. I also assumed you would appreciate knowing if one of your students had wrongly accused another student. Obviously, I was wrong about that. Do _you _encourage your students to lie about one another?"

"No, of course not," Snape said defensively.

"Good. Then you've given Gryffindor back their sixty points, then?"

Snape stared at her again. This wasn't going at all the way it should be. He suddenly realized that she'd done the majority of the talking.

"Miss Talmadge, I'm beginning to think you belong with the Gryffindors. I shall speak with the Headmaster tomorrow about making Professor McGonagall your Head of House."

"I wish you wouldn't do that," she surprised him by saying.

"But why not? After all you've said, and how you apparently feel about Slytherins, I would think you'd welcome the transfer."

"It'll be easier to see you if you're my Head of House."

If he was surprised before, Snape was stunned now. "What?" he heard himself say.

"If you're my Head of House, it'll be easier for us to get together like this."

"But why would you . . .?" Snape was entering the realm of the stupefied now.

Tevis looked at him, a look of amusement mingled with pity. "You and I are going to have something special. I felt it the first night we met. It was like something slid into place, and everything finally made sense."

Snape thought his mouth might be hanging open, and he rubbed his jaw to make sure it wasn't. He finally realized what was going on here – she had a crush on him. He knew that some women (young ones, even) were attracted by a sense of mystery and darkness. Student crushes hadn't happened a lot to Severus Snape over the course of his career, but she certainly wasn't the first infatuated student he'd had to deal with. She was, however, the first one who had stated herself so abruptly and disconcertingly. Usually they mooned around until he figured out what was going on and scared them away.

"Miss Talmadge," he started firmly. She looked at him, her eyes wide and accepting, and he had the idea that she knew exactly what he was about to say and had already prepared counter-arguments. "You are . . . are all Americans this blunt?"

"I don't know, sir. I don't know all of them."

"You are . . . you seem to be . . ." Snape couldn't seem to put a coherent thought together. She smiled at his discomfort, which served to harden his resolve. "You will be transferred to Gryffindor tomorrow," he said, looking down at his desk and straightening the already neat stack of parchments there.

"If you think it's best," she said with a shrug. "You'll leave me no choice but to act up in your class so that you'll assign me detention."

"Why are you doing this?" he asked, running a hand agitatedly through his hair.

"Because you and I are going to have something special," she repeated.

"Are you insane?" he whispered. "We just met last week." Like _that_ was the biggest impediment to what she was suggesting.

"Doesn't matter." She stood up and approached Snape behind his desk. He sat back, alarmed.

"Relax," she said with what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "I'm not going to jump you."

She sat on his desk, careful not to touch the stack of parchments he'd worked so hard to neaten. "Give me your hand," she requested.

"Miss Talmadge, this is . . ."

"Just give me your hand. What have you got to lose?"

_Everything_, Snape thought. _My job. My self-respect, such as it is. My _freedom_._

"Oh for God's sake!" Tevis said, and she reached over and took Snape's left hand, holding it in her own. "Do you feel that?" she asked.

He stared at their hands. Dammit, he did! It was like an electric sensation, tingly but not unpleasant, flowing up his arm, much like what he'd felt when his wand had found him at the age of eleven. He'd felt it before, the night they were introduced, but he'd passed it off as an anomaly of some sort. He looked up at her now, his eyes showing the confusion he felt. "Is this some sort of spell you've cast?"

"No," she said, and he saw the truth of this statement in her eyes.

"What is it?"

"I'm not entirely sure," she admitted. "I felt it the other night, too. I was surprised you didn't. But it feels nice."

It did indeed, but there was no way Snape could admit that. He pulled his hand away, much later than he should have, and a small part of him was disappointed at the break in the contact that was so pleasant and very nearly sensual.

"Please, Miss Talmadge," he said sternly. "Return to your seat." If someone should come in now, and see her sitting on his desk like this . . .

Tevis did as he asked, convinced she'd made her point.

"You must see, Miss Talmadge . . ."

"Tevis," she interrupted.

"You must see, _Miss Talmadge_, that this is impossible for so many reasons."

"Name them."

All right. If he looked at this logically, argued it so, maybe his muddled brain would get in line. "You're sixteen, under the age of consent."

"I'll be seventeen in February. An adult here," she countered. "That's only five months from now."

"I'm old enough to be your father," he tried.

"Age means nothing if you don't let it and I don't let it. No one else matters."

"I doubt your father would feel that way," Snape noted.

"My father could be convinced, if he saw I was happy. You're only as old as you feel."

Right now, parts of Snape felt as old as Dumbledore, while other parts seemed to be revisiting his teenaged years. "Only the very young believe that tripe."

"You have more reasons. Let's hear them."

"You're a student. I'd lose my job."

"So we're discrete. We make sure no one finds out. I'd suggest waiting, but I've got another year after this one, and I don't think I can stay away from you that long."

Snape was beginning to feel just a little bit frightened. This child, and she _was _a child, he told himself firmly, had the power to ruin everything he'd been working years for with her apparent obsession. But what frightened him more was that he could still feel the dull buzz in his hand where she'd touched him, which was making him wonder if everything he'd worked for was worth more than the creature sitting before him now, apparently offering herself to him.

No. This was insane. "I think you should go now," he said, and he was pleased that his voice sounded steady when his insides were quaking so. "This detention is over."

Tevis stood up willingly. He'd listed his reasons for not doing this, and none of them were _I don't find you attractive_, or _I simply don't want _you. "Can we talk again soon?" she asked.

"I don't think that would be wise."

"Probably not," Tevis admitted. "But when I can't stand it any more, you'll know. And you'll have no choice." It could have sounded like a threat, but she'd said the words with certainty and warmth, which made them sound much more like a promise of good things to come. "But I _should_ go now. Harry was going to wait for me, to make sure you didn't kill me, I think."

If he'd thought this situation couldn't get any worse, Snape was suddenly proved wrong. "You've told Potter about this?"

"Yes," she said. "He tried to talk me out of it."

"Probably the first sensible thing he's done since setting foot on these grounds."

"Be nice. You're on the same side on this issue. He might even be your ally."

Snape snorted in disbelief.

"Good night, Professor," Tevis said softly. And she was gone.

Snape sat back. What was he going to do? He had a sneaking suspicion that he was _not _going to go to Dumbledore and tell him what had happened and ask him to assign the girl to McGonagall, which was exactly what he _should_ do. A small, wicked part of him told himself what he most likely would do tonight, when he was finally alone and in his bed, with the hand that still bore the traces of her touch.

##########

Tevis saw no one in the hallway as she approached her room, though that wasn't a surprise, as Harry had the invisibility cloak. Or maybe he'd decided not to come.

"Harry?" she said to the empty hallway just as she tripped over something unseen. She stumbled and fell to her hands and knees.

"Sorry!" Harry said hastily, pulling the cloak off. He'd been trying to read _History of Magic_. One really should never read _History of Magic_ while lying, sitting or even slouching against a wall. "I fell asleep. Are you okay?" He got to his feet and helped Tevis up. "I'm really sorry. Did you hurt yourself?"

"No, I'm fine," she said, rubbing her achy palms.

"So how did it go?" Harry asked. "You obviously survived."

"Why don't you come inside? You don't want to get caught in the hallway."

Tevis led him into her room, and Harry looked around. He said, "Must be nice having your own room."

"I guess," she shrugged.

"You play?" he asked, picking up a guitar.

"Yes," she said. "Piano, too. Professor Flitwick says I can use his to practice. And you might not think it was so great having your own room if it was due to some stupid irrational fear."

"We can't control what we're afraid of."

"What are you afraid of, Harry?"

"Professor Snape," Harry said, sitting down on her bed. "What did he say?"

"Pretty much everything you did, yet surprisingly more eloquently."

"Not so surprising, that, really. So have you changed your mind then and decided to turn your affections to someone more appropriate, like say a certain Gryffindor who befriended you earlier today?" Harry tried out his best puppy dog expression, but apparently it wasn't very effective because Tevis only laughed.

She sat beside him on the bed and took his hand between both of hers. "When I did this to Professor Snape earlier, we both felt this . . . electric shock. I still feel it. From before, not from touching you," she said gently. "Sorry."

"He touched you?!"

"No. _I_ touched _him_. I didn't give him much choice. He was a perfect gentleman."

"I'd be the last person to try to defend Snape, but you could get him into a lot of trouble."

"I know," she said softly.

"But you're still going to do this?"

"I have to."

"You know how I feel. I won't try to change your mind. But I'll be here for you, if you need me," Harry promised. And he was sure she would, because there was just no way Snape would get involved with a student. He had a lot of doubts about Snape's ethics, but on this one thing he was sure. Almost. And when the old bastard broke Tevis' silly young heart, as he surely would, Harry would be there to put the pieces back together.

Tevis rested her head on Harry's shoulder. "Thank you for being my friend, Harry Potter."

"Yeah, friend," Harry grumped. "Hey!" he said. "You mentioned you'd like to explore the castle when it was empty. There's a Hogsmeade visit this weekend. The castle doesn't get any emptier except for the holidays. Unless you have your heart set on going into the village, I could show you around. I have this great map. We could poke around a bit."

"That sounds great! I wasn't going into Hogsmeade anyway. I was given to understand that it's quite crowded there on student weekends. I'd love to go exploring with you!"

##########

"Potter. A word," Snape said from his office doorway. He'd been lurking there, impatiently waiting for the boy to pass.

"Is that an order or a request, Professor?" Harry asked. He suspected he knew what Snape wanted to talk about, and Harry didn't want to hear it. There was no way he wanted to be in the middle of this.

"Consider it whatever you want, so long as your feet take you inside my office."

Harry sighed in defeat and followed Snape inside.

"The door," Snape ordered. Harry shut the door. He stood before Snape's desk waiting for Snape to start.

And waited.

And waited.

"Did you want something, Professor?" he finally asked.

"Miss Talmadge tells me she has . . . confided in you about her . . . feelings," he said at last, not looking at Harry.

"She has," Harry confirmed.

"She also said you tried to talk sense into her."

"Tried and failed."

"As did I. I find myself in a precarious position. I _should_ go to the Headmaster and tell him what has transpired. If I do, I fear Miss Talmadge will be expelled. And despite the frightening nature of her . . . obsession, I don't wish to negatively impact her education in that way. However, if I say nothing, I leave myself at risk. And I risk Miss Talmadge feeling as though by not reporting her behavior, I am somehow welcoming or encouraging it. Which I am most decidedly not."

"Rather muddled," Harry offered.

"Your grasp of the obvious is inspiring, Potter," Snape said with a nasty sneer.

"Did you want something from me?" Harry asked angrily. "Because I think insulting me is probably not the way to go about getting it."

Snape sighed, which was all the apology the boy was going to get. "I wish to limit the amount of time I am alone with Miss Talmadge, for obvious reasons. She's intimated that she's going to create situations where I will be forced to give her detention."

"You're asking me to get myself into detention with her?" Harry asked incredulously.

"That shouldn't be difficult for you," Snape said. "She seems to like you. You're already aware of the situation. Your interference might be tolerated by her." Snape continued stiffly. "And would be greatly appreciated by me."

Harry couldn't believe Snape was asking him for any favor, let alone _this_. "You could assign her detentions with Filch," he suggested. "That would deter her."

Snape had considered that as well, but the thought of that disgusting, grizzled old squib anywhere near Tevis . . . Miss Talmadge . . . was unsettling to him for reasons he didn't want to contemplate. "I considered that and thought better."

Harry had to admit to himself that he was glad about that. He didn't like the thought of Filch anywhere near Tevis either. He sighed loudly. If this had been solely for Snape's benefit, he would have said no. But if he could save Tevis from herself, it would be worth it. "All right," he said grudgingly. "But I'm doing this because I like her, and I think she's barking mad, going after you. She'll catch on to what I'm doing, sooner or later, though, and she'll object."

"Yes, I expect she will. And if you could linger with her, until she leaves Defense class. I know you have a free period following my class."

Harry shivered a little at the thought that Snape knew his schedule so well. Then he sighed again. This was going to be hell. And then he thought of something. "Had you heard of her gift, sir?"

"Her gift?" Snape repeated, confused.

"Yes. Have you ever known someone with that gift, or heard of anyone who has it? Because I'm not sure how much faith to place in what she says."

"Potter, I don't know what you're going on about. What gift?"

"She called it the gift of knowing. Providentia."

Snape seemed visibly stunned by this news. "She has the gift of knowing? She told you this?"

"Yes. She said her grandmother had it, too. I'm sorry. I thought she would have told you."

"No, she did not mention that." Snape seemed distracted by this news.

"So, is it real? She told me she saw me when I was old, like forty. So obviously, it would be nice to know that I'm going to survive that long. But it sounds like Divination, which quite frankly I think is a bunch of sh– rubbish. So I probably shouldn't put too much faith in it, right?"

Snape refocused on Harry now. "Providentia is to Divination like legillimency is to mind reading. Divination is an attempt to predict future events using tangible objects such as tea leaves, crystal balls, or even the stars. There have been very few actual seers in history but many who pretend to have the sight. Providentia is more like seeing a photograph of a moment in the future, gleaned by touching an individual. And those who possess the knowledge are more rare even than the true seer. You say her grandmother had it as well?"

Harry nodded. "That's what she told me."

"It is hereditary and almost always skips a generation. And far more witches have had the knowledge than wizards."

"But is it accurate?" Harry pressed. "Are these 'photographs' actual . . ." Harry was struggling with how to form his thoughts into a coherent question, and Snape hmmphed impatiently. "If Tevis saw me as a forty-year old, does that mean that I'll live to see that age?"

Snape stared down at Harry. "If Miss Talmadge does have the gift, you will indeed live to the ripe old age of forty. At least."

Pleasure coursed through Harry. He was going to live! Voldemort was not going to kill him! A dampening thought occurred. "Can something happen to change the photograph? Or is it set in stone?"

"I believe I'll be attending your fortieth birthday party, Potter. Assuming _I_ reach the exceedingly advanced age of sixty-two."

Harry's smile lit up the room.

"Don't get cocky, Mr. Potter," Snape warned. "You have no context for whatever Miss Talmadge saw. Don't assume that just because you survive, your life is anything like you might picture it to be now. Perhaps all of your friends are killed in battle. Perhaps her vision was of you as the next Dark Lord. Or perhaps you were the current Dark Lord's over-aged catamite."

"What's a catamite?"

Snape stared at Harry, willing to boy to get it without his having to say the words out loud.

Harry did, slowly, and his smile disappeared. "Oh. Like his . . . oh. Yeah, that wouldn't be so good." Snape was right. Harry couldn't afford to take anything for granted. But he was going to live, at least!

Now Snape had a question. "Did Miss Talmadge . . . does her . . . obsession . . . is it based on something she's seen? Did she tell you?"

Harry considered how to answer that, then said, "I think she may have had her reasons for not telling you about that, and I'm going to have to respect that."

Even Snape's fearsome glare couldn't make Harry change his mind, and he stood up to go. "Anything else?"

"No. That will be all."

Harry waited. "So this appreciation you spoke of doesn't come in the form of a simple 'thank you'?"

"Thank you," Snape said, and it was as though two teeth had been extracted rather than two little words.

##########

They'd had a wonderful time exploring the castle, using Harry's map to avoid others and find new and interesting hallways and rooms that Harry had never seen. After lunch, they'd gone down to the quidditch pitch. Even slowed down by a borrowed school broom, Harry could tell that Tevis was an excellent flyer. He hoped no one in Slytherin found out – if they did, they'd be after her to join as seeker, and Gryffindor would be in serious trouble.

##########

Harry waited tensely in Defense Against the Dark Arts the following week – he really didn't want to spend tonight in detention. He'd been spending a lot of time with Tevis, and he enjoyed her company. He was glad he'd found her as a friend. Ron and Hermione were spending more and more time together alone of late, and Harry had begun to feel left out. Though his relationship with Tevis could apparently never be what Ron and Hermione had, she was turning into a pretty good friend. If only she didn't have this really weird and totally disgusting fascination with Snape.

Tevis had behaved herself to this point, sitting quietly in the back of the room beside Harry. Snape had been ignoring both of them, apparently hoping not to give her the chance to test him. That changed when the lesson was almost over.

Tevis redirected a hex Harry sent her way into Snape's desk, completely clearing the top of rolls of parchment, ink, quills, and books. Everyone turned to stare as the contents of the desk top clattered to the floor.

Snape bore holes into Tevis' eyes, knowing she'd done it on purpose, but she merely looked back at him, a picture of innocence and penitence.

"Miss Talmadge," Snape said, aware that all eyes were on him now.

"Sorry, Professor, that one got away from me," she said. "Looks like I could use a little extra practice."

Snape's shoulders slumped, just a little, in defeat, though Harry and Tevis may have been the only ones to notice. "Perhaps a little remedial blocking practice would not be remiss. Bring Potter with you. He could use the practice as well."

Harry's look of outrage was genuine. His spell-blocking was just fine, thank you!

"Thank you, sir," Tevis said gratefully. Harry felt an overwhelming desire to kick her in the shin.

While the others packed up at the end of the lesson, Harry and Tevis hung back. Ron made as though to wait as well, but Hermione dragged him away with a meaningful backward glance between Harry and Tevis. It was clear what she thought was going on with the two of them. _If you only knew, Hermione_, Harry thought, y_ou wouldn't be looking at me that way._

"I will see you both at eight," Snape said when they finally left the room.

"You don't have to come, Harry," Tevis said as soon as they were in the quiet hallway.

"Oh yes, I do," Harry contradicted. "Snape told me to. Last week. He's afraid of you."

This news seemed to please Tevis. "Oh," she said quietly with a small smile.

"He's afraid he'll lose his job if you don't drop this stupid obsession. He wants witnesses." Harry wasn't feeling particularly generous toward her right now and didn't even try to mince his words.

Tevis snorted in amusement. "Does he think I'm going to attack him? I just want to spend some time with him and get to know him."

"And this is your grand plan for getting him to fall in love with you?" Harry asked skeptically.

"Eventually," she said.

"You're deranged. This can only end badly," he warned.

##########

Tevis knocked eagerly on Snape's door. He opened it, but before they could enter, he said, "Potter, would you mind staying here for a moment? There's something I need to discuss with Miss Talmadge."

"But I thought . . . fine! If that's what you want!" Harry huffed. What was he even doing here?

"Just stay there in the door," Snape instructed. He invited Tevis to sit in the chair in front of his desk, then crossed behind it. He waved his wand, casting a muffliato spell, so Harry could see them but not hear what they were saying.

"Miss Talmadge," Snape began. "Potter told me about . . . your gift. I wanted to ask if your obsession with me is based on something you may have seen by way of that gift."

Tevis looked up at him. "Partly on that, partly on the way I felt when I touched you."

"What did you see?"

"I'd rather not say."

Snape let that sit there. In his experience with people, especially teenagers, especially female teenagers, if you let silence reign long enough, their unsuppressible need to fill it eventually took over and you'd hear what you wanted to hear. This apparently was not a typical teenaged girl, because after two full minutes of silence, she hadn't offered any additional insight.

"Why not?" Snape finally gave up and asked.

"Because I don't want you to feel as though you have no choice about this."

"Even if I haven't?" Snape asked. If she'd actually seen the two of them together, Snape was doomed, given the nature of her gift. But if what she'd seen was open to interpretation at all, as Potter's vision had been, there might still be a way out of this.

Tevis looked away. She knew what she'd seen and she knew what it meant. There was no escape. But she didn't want him to feel trapped. "I'd like you to want me because you want me, not for something I've seen. I know your reasons for keeping your distance, and on one level, I respect them. But on another level, I know that what I feel when I touch you . . . that's never happened with any other vision I've ever had, and it's clear to me what it means. And I think it's clear to you, too, though you don't want to admit it."

Snape had actually done some research into that phenomenon and had been shocked to discover that the tingling they felt when touching was likely due to the fact that their magic was sympathetic. This peculiar sharing of magic was rare enough that Snape had never heard of it, but it was documented in several different sources in Hogwart's library. The symptoms were clearly spelled out and mirrored what Snape had experienced when this rather unusual young woman had touched him.

Snape had never known a teenager like this one. She was calm and collected, marshaling her points coolly in an argument she couldn't win, bending logic and reason to her will or ignoring them altogether when they didn't suit her. She'd come into his office a week ago practically demanding that he fall in love with her. And to his never-ending surprise, he'd begun to obey.

"Miss Talmadge, I think you're making a huge mistake."

"I know you do. I suspect if I took a vote of everyone in this castle, mine would be the only vote against me being a complete nutter, as you people here say. But the heart wants what it wants, and my heart wants you. I could have gone sneaking around trying to get close to you, but I wanted you to know, right up front, what was going on."

"What is it that you want me to do?" he asked helplessly.

"Just spend some time with me. Just the two of us. Without our little chaperone. Tell people you're getting me caught up. I'm a transfer student – that'll be easy to believe."

Objectively, Snape knew this was a lousy cover story. Her magic was strong, as it usually was in those with her gift, matched in sheer power in her class only by Potter. And from what he could tell already, she was an exceptional student, clearly much too bright for her own good, in the realm of that annoying Granger girl. She simply didn't need extra help. But the fact that he was looking for flaws in her cover story, rather than denying the need for one, told him he was in very deep trouble.

"I promise I won't throw myself on you and drag you to the floor," Tevis said solemnly. "Unless you want me to," she added. "And if you knew just how sexy I think you are, you'd know how much self-restraint that's going to take."

_Sexy_? Oh now that was just going too far. "Miss Talmadge . . ."

"Tevis," she corrected.

"This is going to end badly," he predicted. "Definitely for you, most likely for both of us."

"So I've been told. But I don't believe it," she said softly.

"Tell me what you saw."

"No."

Well, she'd left him with little choice. Snape stared into her eyes, boring his way into her mind. Or he tried to anyway. She cast him aside without so much as breaking a sweat.

"Did you know that those with the gift of knowing are also born with natural occlusion shields?" she asked conversationally. "They don't even have to be erected – they just _are_. Can't have everyone we touch stealing our visions, can we?"

Snape had _not _known that. He was slightly embarrassed to have been caught trying to enter her mind, and more than a little mortified to have failed so spectacularly. He waved his wand and removed the silencing spell. "You can go now," he growled. "_Both _of you!"

Tevis could see that he needed her to go, and she didn't argue. "You'll think about those extra lessons, Professor?" she asked softly.

Snape inclined his head once in answer.

##########

When Snape didn't provide her with an answer to her request for "extra lessons" after what she felt was a reasonable time period (one week), Tevis began to deliberately misbehave in class to earn herself detention a couple of times a week. Invariably, Harry found himself dragged by Snape into whatever mischief Tevis got up to and earned himself detention as well. Without sending her to Filch, Snape set out to make the experience as horrible as possible in an effort to end this silly charade.

It seemed to have no effect on Tevis. She made no complaints about the lines he set her to write (with a quill). She willingly minced flobberworms and actually seemed interested when he made her gather giant slug mucus for the potions he continued to brew for Poppy Pomfrey. (The mediwitch strangely didn't seem to trust the new potions instructor like she did Severus.) Tevis hummed to herself when he made her scrub the classroom floor with a brush, and then sang under her breath while cleaning desks. Nothing he made her do seemed to deter her interest in spending time with Snape.

Harry made it plain from the start that although he had agreed to get himself into detention, he had no intention of actually performing the punishments he had not earned, and he sat quietly doing homework while she worked.

Snape finally realized that detention wasn't working and wouldn't work unless he sent her to Filch, or even Hagrid. He knew she'd stop being cheeky in class if she were forced to perform her detentions with someone else, but he couldn't make himself do it. So he came up with Plan B and offered her the "extra lessons" she'd requested.

They began to meet a couple of nights each week in his deserted classroom. Anyone else unlucky enough to earn detention during this time from Professor Snape _was _sent to Filch.

And Snape began hexing her with every nasty legal curse he could think of. He'd briefly explain a block to her, then set about throwing hexes her way that she had no business knowing how to block. He gave her boils, turned her hair green and her skin orange, transformed her feet into a duck's webbed feet, and knocked her down more times than she could count.

And at the end of each session, he refused to heal her cuts and bruises, or cure whatever nasty condition he'd inflicted on her, or change back whatever he'd managed to transfigure, and he warned her that if she went to the hospital wing, Madame Pomfrey would likely go to Dumbledore, thus ending these lessons. So Tevis had to find a counter-curse or heal herself when he was through with her.

Harry attended most of these sessions with her and sat fuming at Snape's treatment of Tevis. Part of him thought maybe Tevis was getting exactly what she deserved for being so foolish as to want to attach herself to someone as vile as Snape, but the part of him that had hated Snape for years wanted to curse him back.

He couldn't hold his tongue any longer the night Snape sent Tevis tumbling over two rows of desks.

When she didn't get up, Harry ran to her side and dropped to his knees. She was bleeding from cuts to her forehead and lip, and she appeared to be unconscious.

"Could you take it easy on her?" Harry growled.

Snape swooped over and stood peering down at them. "I thought I was supposed to be discouraging her foolish obsession?"

"It would be nice if you didn't kill her in the process!"

"Tsk!" Snape snorted. _"Ennervate!"_

Tevis opened her eyes and blinked up at the ceiling.

Snape looked down at her, his eyes cold. "That was quite pathetic, Miss Talmadge," he said, his voice as cold as his eyes. "Perhaps you should go now and not come back until you're better prepared." And he turned on his heel and left them with a swirl of his robe.

##########

For the next two weeks, Tevis stopped attending extra lessons and saw Professor Snape only in class, where she spoke not one word to him. After the first week, Snape wondered why. And after the second week, he began to worry. Had he gone too far? Had he hurt her feelings when he'd called her pathetic? Had he actually _hurt _her, physically? Had she accepted his suggestion that she not return until she was prepared to perform a block that was at least two years beyond her ability? Had he finally succeeded in pushing her away? Of course, this was exactly what he wanted, wasn't it? Had she perhaps found someone more worthy of her time? Someone like Potter?

The more he thought about it, the more he wondered. And the more he wondered, the more he felt certain that he just had to know, until he couldn't stand it any longer.

##########

Assuming it was Harry knocking on her door, Tevis called, "Come in!" She continued to work away at the essay she was writing for Potions entitled, "_Six Uses of Reconstituted Gnat's Blood in Repellant Potions_."

The door had opened, but no one had entered. "Do you not ascertain who is calling before you invite guests in?"

Tevis dropped her pen and turned around. "Professor Snape! I thought you were Harry!"

"Dear me," Snape noted dryly. "Mistaken for Potter. This is, quite frankly, the low point of my life."

Tevis smiled and stood up. "Would you like to come in?"

Snape stepped warily into the room, as though he expected to be set upon by . . . what, exactly? "I came because I realized that you have an American holiday approaching."

"Yes," Tevis confirmed. "Thanksgiving."

"Obviously, that particular holiday is not celebrated in this part of the world. I wanted to be sure you were aware that the house elves will provide you with whatever you desire in terms of a meal, on that day. I believe turkey is traditional?"

Tevis nodded.

"We need only tell them."

"Well, that's very kind of you," Tevis said with a warm smile. "Thank you."

"You're quite welcome." Snape looked around her room. It was tidy, with books stacked where they belonged and clothing put away and the few personal items neat and orderly. "Have I interrupted you?"

"No. I was just working on an essay for potions."

"Ah, potions. Do you require any assistance? I've a background in potions."

Tevis smiled again. "I'd heard that. I've only just begun, but would you like to read what I have so far?"

"If you think it would be beneficial," Snape offered.

Tevis handed the parchment over. As she'd only written three paragraphs, it didn't take Snape long to read it. As with most of her written work, it was neat, well-ordered, and logically thought out. "Very acceptable beginning," he said when he handed it back.

"Thank you." What was "acceptable" for Snape was likely to merit an "exceptional" from Slughorn.

"How have you been?" Snape inquired. "I have seen very little of you outside of class." And lest she think he was personally interested, he added, "As your Head of House, I feel it is my duty to ensure that you are getting along adequately."

"Of course," Tevis said with a knowing grin. "I've been fine. Very . . . adequate."

"Excellent. So there's no particular reason that you've been kept away from your . . . evening visits?" He was fishing, and they both knew it.

"No. No particular reason. I've just had more than an average amount of homework lately."

"Ah, well. That must, of course, come first."

Tevis nodded her agreement. "I anticipate that the work load will be lightening somewhat now."

"Good," Snape noted. "That your load will be less burdensome, that is. I look forward to that occurrence."

"So do I," Tevis said softly, understanding that he meant he was looking forward to the resumption of their regular contact, even if he couldn't say it. He was inviting her back, and he'd come tonight to find out why she'd stopped coming in the first place. She was happy enough to sing, but she carefully kept her expression neutral.

"Oh," he said, as though just remembering. "I found these outside your door. Do they belong to you?" From beneath his robe, Snape pulled out a small bundle of delicate yellow flowers and held them out to her. It was a small lie, as lies went, and Tevis saw right through it. She had a difficult time not melting into a puddle of goo – he'd brought her flowers!

"Why, yes," she managed to say. Breathing was just a bit more difficult now than it had been a moment ago. "They _are_ mine. I'm so happy you've found them."

When Tevis reached out to take the flowers, her hand brushed against his, sending an electric shock coursing through both of them. "Thank you," she breathed, looking up at him.

She was standing much too close to him, Snape thought. So close that if he just bent down a little, he could touch his lips to hers with little effort. He actually started to move in that direction before he caught himself. "You should probably go," he whispered. "It's getting late."

Tevis looked up at him, her eyes locked on his, reading the struggle he was having with himself. "You're in my room," she quietly pointed out.

"Yes, of course," he agreed. "Then _I_ should go." He tore his gaze from hers and backed up a step. "I hope to see you soon."

"I think you can count on that," she promised.

"Good night, then," he said, back in full professor mode. He walked to the door only to find Harry standing there, ready to knock. "Potter," he said curtly as he strode past the astonished boy.

"Professor," Harry managed to finally say, though Snape was halfway down the corridor by now. Then to Tevis, "Where'd you get the flowers?"

##########

And the extra lessons resumed. Now that Tevis was sure that Snape had missed her presence, she upped them to three times a week. And amazingly enough, she began to successfully block the hexes that Snape was throwing at her, almost as though she'd known how all along but was pretending not to for some strange, feminine, strategical reason. Tevis dragged Harry into the practice sessions now, and he began to learn the blocks as well. Tevis was thirsty for knowledge, and even Harry was an eager student when the subject appealed to him, and they both soaked up whatever Snape chose to teach them.

As they worked, they began to talk. Well, mostly Tevis talked, but as time went by, Snape began to more actively participate. He found her to be a surprisingly adequate conversationalist. She'd traveled extensively with her father, to places Snape had only read and dreamed about, and their evenings together passed much more quickly than he could have ever imagined.

And if a small part of Snape worried about the closeness than seemed to be developing between him and his student, he silenced it by telling himself that he hadn't crossed any lines by helping an advanced student to reach her full potential and that they were (almost) always chaperoned. So he wasn't doing anything wrong, right?

Harry had been spending a lot of time with Tevis, in the extra sessions, in her room, sometimes out on the grounds. Of course, people were talking, and Harry and Tevis let them, Tevis because it diverted everyone's attention away from her burgeoning relationship with Snape, and Harry because of the doubt he was beginning to feel about himself.

One evening, when they were supposed to be studying, Harry was having difficulty concentrating. Eventually, Tevis noticed that he was still on the same page of his textbook after twenty minutes, and she closed her own book.

"Harry, is everything okay?"

Harry looked up at her, then quickly back down at his book. "Sure. It's fine."

He could feel her continuing to stare at him, and finally he looked up again. "What?"

"I can tell something's bothering you. I see it in your eyes. Talk to me."

Harry closed the book and tossed it aside. "It's . . . kind of embarrassing."

"Harry, I've confessed my love for our aged professor to you. Surely there's nothing you can't say to me."

Harry considered for a moment, wondering if he could articulate the questions inside himself, if he could trust her to keep this to herself, trust her not to judge. He took a deep breath and plunged in. "I had a dream last night. In this dream . . . I was . . . with another bloke." The dream had thrown him for a loop. He'd woken up hard, his hand wrapped around his cock, and he'd brought himself to a furious and silent climax. What was wrong with him?!

"Harry, are you wondering if you're gay?"

Harry couldn't look at her. He shrugged. "I mean, it was only a dream, right? It doesn't have to mean anything."

"Do you _think_ it meant something?"

"I don't know! That's why I've been so . . . distracted."

"Who was the other guy in the dream?"

"I dunno. I only ever saw his . . . I didn't see his face." Harry could feel his face coloring.

"Harry, it's nothing to be embarrassed about. If you are or you aren't, it's okay either way. And it might just have been a dream."

"But how do I know for sure?" He raised his eyes to her now, and she could see the anguish there.

"Maybe you can't," she said gently. "Maybe you can't, until you do a bit of experimentation. Let me ask you this – have you ever had a similar dream about a girl?"

"No," he said miserably.

"And how did the dream make you feel?"

"I felt . . . I don't know how I felt." He did, but he wasn't sure he could bring himself to describe it.

"Did the dream arouse you?"

"Yes," he said, his eyes cast down.

"And does the fact that you were aroused bother you?"

"You mean after I finished wanking?" he asked, his face flushed. "Yes! I was disgusted!"

"Okay," Tevis said, calmly and reasonably. "I'm going to ask you a question, and I don't want you to think about the answer. Can you do that?" Harry nodded. "Close your eyes." He did so. "Now remember, no thinking. Blurt out whatever jumps into your mind. Ready?" Again, Harry nodded. "If the other guy in your dream last night could have been anyone, who would you like it to be?"'

"Michael O'Sullivan," Harry answered immediately, then dropped his face into his hands. "Oh my God! I'm gay!"

"Who is Michael O'Sullivan?"

"He plays chaser for the Chudley Canons." And he was tall and muscular and blonde. Harry moaned into his hands.

"Harry," Tevis said quietly, pulling his hands away from his face. "Stop it. It's not the end of the world."

"Not _your _world maybe! But wait until the wizarding world finds out their hero is a flaming . . ."

"Harry Potter!" Tevis interrupted sternly.

"Oh, and wait until Uncle Vernon finds out about this! Everything he ever thought about me will be confirmed."

"Harry, slow down. You don't even know that it's true. And even if it is, don't hide yourself out of fear of what others will think. Look at me." When Harry did, she continued, "Do you think that when word finally gets out about Snape and me that people won't say things? Not to him. An older man hooking up with a younger woman is admired. A young woman loving an older man is . . . well, that's just different."

Harry shook his head, at his own doubts and at her dogged insistence that there would be a "Snape and me" for the public to comment on. "But how do I _know_?" he asked again.

"Experimentation," she said. "_Careful _experimentation."

Harry sighed. "I can't do that here."

"No, probably not," Tevis conceded. "Not with other guys anyway, not if you're worried about word getting out. But girls . . . that shouldn't be a problem."

"No? What if I can't . . .you know, what if I'm not attracted to them and I can't . . . perform. What if they shout _that _from the rooftops?"

"You just need to choose the right girl."

Harry snorted. "I've heard girls talking to each other. Nothing is sacred. How would I know I could trust them?"

"You trust me," she said quietly.

Harry looked at her, comprehension of what she was offering dawning on him slowly. "You'd do that?"

"If it would help."

To be continued . . .


	2. Chapter 2

**Worth Waiting For**

by warviben

**Summary**: A student new to Hogwarts will change Snape's and Harry's lives in ways they could never have imagined.

**Warnings**: This fic contains detailed descriptions of sexual encounters. Some of them are hetero- and some are male/male/female. If this type of thing is not for you, I suggest you stop reading now.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters (well, most of them anyway). If you're reading this, you likely know that.

From Chapter 1:

_Harry shook his head, at his own doubts and at her dogged insistence that there would be a "Snape and me" for the public to comment on. "But how do I _know_?" he asked again._

"_Experimentation," she said. "Careful experimentation."_

_Harry sighed. "I can't do that here."_

"_No, probably not," Tevis conceded. "Not with other guys anyway, not if you're worried about word getting out. But girls . . . that shouldn't be a problem."_

"_No? What if I can't . . .you know, what if I'm not attracted to them and I can't . . . perform. What if they shout _that _from the rooftops?"_

"_You just need to choose the right girl."_

_Harry snorted. "I've heard girls talking to each other. Nothing is sacred. How would I know I could trust them?"_

"_You trust me," she said quietly._

_Harry looked at her, comprehension of what she was offering dawning on him slowly. "You'd do that?"_

"_If it would help."_

Chapter 2

Harry chewed on his bottom lip, thinking furiously. What she was offering frightened him, but it could potentially lead to something helpful. But could he just . . . "I don't know if I can just . . ."

"What's the matter? Don't you find me attractive?"

"Of course I do. I hit on you the first time we met, remember?"

"So what's the problem?"

Harry paused, trying to work it out. This process was interrupted by Tevis, who was suddenly very close to him. "You're thinking, Harry." Her breath was warm on his lips. "You aren't going to figure this out by thinking it to death." She kissed him softly. "Feel. Don't think."

So he did. He kissed her back, and she increased the pressure. They kissed for a while, and it was nice, but when Tevis worked her tongue into his mouth, suddenly Harry felt a whole new sensation, like the last one doubled, and the kiss became more insistent and urgent. Harry made a small noise of pleasure in the back of his throat.

Tevis pulled away a little. "You like that?"

"Mmm. Nice," Harry said, then went back in for more.

Tevis pulled away moments later. "Okay. That's good," Tevis said clinically, as though she was a professor dealing with a not terribly bright student. "Now let's try this."

Tevis pulled her shirt off over her head and threw it to the floor. Her bra followed immediately.

"Tevis," Harry said, not because he didn't enjoy the view, because he found he did, very much so. (In fact, he was finding it difficult to lift his eyes from her chest.) But he was afraid of going too far here and destroying the friendship he'd come to value so highly.

"What, Harry?" she asked, studying him and his reaction. She seemed bothered not at all by her near nakedness.

"You're beautiful," he breathed.

"Do you think so?"

He nodded.

"Do you want to touch me?"

He did, and he didn't. The "did" was more powerful than the "didn't", and he nodded again, closing his eyes and reaching out his hand.

"No, Harry," Tevis stopped him. "Open your eyes. I want to know you're seeing me and not someone else."

Harry opened his eyes. "Oh, it's you," he assured her. And it was.

He reached out to her slowly, cupping her left breast in his palm. He rubbed his thumb over the nipple, causing it to pucker and harden and causing a sharp intake of breath from Tevis.

"That's nice, Harry," she breathed.

Harry reached up with his left hand and mirrored his action on her other breast. Tevis closed here eyes and let her head drop back. Harry leaned in closer and kissed her again while he continued to massage her breasts.

This could get out of hand quickly. Harry wanted to touch her all over and with more than just his hands and lips. "We don't need to do this," he said, pulling himself away from her with great reluctance.

"It's okay," she said, feeling bereft at the loss of his touch.

"No, I mean we don't need to do this." He looked pointedly down at his lap. Her eyes followed his, and she could clearly see the outline of his erection in his trousers.

Tevis reached out with one finger and ran it along the length of Harry's cloth-covered engorged flesh, causing him to hiss in pleasure. "Sorry," she said.

"No, it's okay. It's enough to know I'd like to toss you on the bed and . . ." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"I can't, Harry. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that to you."

"It's really okay," Harry assured her. And even though he now needed a very cold shower, he wasn't displeased with her or what they'd done. "You've helped me to understand . . . something."

"You realize that this only confirms that you're attracted to girls," Tevis said as she put her shirt back on, foregoing the bra. "It doesn't eliminate the possibility that you're attracted to guys as well."

"I guess I'll have to find some bloke willing to undress for me and let me touch him so I can test that theory," Harry joked. "But for now, this," he said, sweeping a hand over his still pulsing erection, "is enough." And strangely enough, it was. "Thank you."

#########

On the nights she wasn't with Snape, Tevis could usually be found in an empty classroom, playing the piano Professor Flitwick had so generously offered for her use. Alone at first, Tevis played and sang and lost herself in the music. Gradually, as the sound began to filter out into the hallway, people began to gather to listen, slowly filling the classroom. When Tevis realized what was happening, she conjured a curtain between herself and the gathered students, lest her enochlophobia kick in and destroy the joy she was finding in the music. When Harry couldn't find Tevis in her room, he looked for her in the classroom Flitwick used for choir practice, and if he didn't find her in either place, he stopped looking and waited for her in her room, knowing Snape would make her return there at a reasonably proper time. They would then study together until Tevis kicked him out at bedtime.

Harry wasn't sure what he would have done without Tevis. Ron and Hermione weren't actively excluding him, but he felt like a third wheel in their presence, and to lose the closeness he'd had with his two best friends hurt somewhat. Tevis helped immensely with that.

##########

Christmas break had started, and the castle was nearly empty. Tevis had had to stay – her father was flying a mission, and she wouldn't be able to see him until Easter (hopefully). She was in her room strumming her guitar when she was surprised by a knock. She opened the door to find Dumbledore and Snape.

"Miss Talmadge," said the Headmaster. "How are you, my dear?"

"I'm fine, sir, thank you. Would you like to come in?"

"If you don't mind." The two men entered. Dumbledore looked around. "You seem to have settled in nicely here."

"Yes, sir. Please, sit down."

Dumbledore sat in the chair by the desk, leaving for Snape only the bed, where Tevis had seated herself. He remained standing.

"Are you getting along all right with the castle nearly empty?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, sir. I kind of like it this way."

Dumbledore inhaled a large breath, as if to fortify himself for something. "Miss Talmadge, I'm afraid I called upon you to share some terrible news with you. I am dearly sorry to have to tell you that your father is dead."

"What?" Tevis said, sure she must have misheard him.

"Your father, Miss Talmadge . . . was killed in a training accident two days ago. A representative of your Air Force sent . . . I believe it's called a telegram? An owl carried it from Hogsmeade. A memorial service is to be held at Lakenheath on the twenty-seventh. We will, of course, make arrangements to get you there. Do you have family we can contact, Miss Talmadge? You should not be alone at a time like this."

Tevis sat, stunned. Her father couldn't possibly be dead. She'd gotten a letter from him only two days ago. She planned on seeing him in four months. He was only flying a mission. Maybe his plane had gone down, but he'd ejected and parachuted to safety. He was a wizard, for God's sake! Any moment now, they would find him, alive and well, and send another telegram to say that they were awfully sorry about the premature news of Major Talmadge's death . . . or better yet, maybe they'd let him come here and tell her in person how ridiculous tidings of his death were.

Tevis finally became aware that the men were watching her and apparently waiting for her to speak. Had someone asked a question? "I'm sorry, sir . . . what?"

Dumbledore's eyes were filled with sympathy. "Do you have family we can contact, Miss Talmadge? Someone who can come to you during this difficult time?"

Numbly, Tevis shook her head. "No. There's no one."

"We will arrange to have someone accompany you to the service. Severus, would you . . ."

"Of course, Headmaster."

Tevis looked up at them, tears streaming down her face even though she didn't believe the news they'd brought, not really. "Do they say what happened?"

"The telegram gave no details in that regard," Dumbledore explained. "I'm sure you will learn more when . . . at the time of the service."

Tevis stood up and wiped her eyes. "Thank you for coming here and telling me, sir."

Dumbledore stood up as well and put a hand on her shoulder. "I am so terribly sorry for your loss."

"Thank you," she said automatically, even though she hadn't lost anything (right?). "What would happen to me, sir? I'm not seventeen until February. If I had no parent and no guardian . . . Would I have to leave here?"

Dumbledore put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a gentle hug. "Let that be the least of your worries, my dear. Rest assured we shall not expel you into the world quite yet."

"Thank you, sir."

"Is there anything we can do for you, Miss Talmadge?" he asked kindly. "Anything at all?"

"No, sir. Thank you. I . . . I think I just need to be alone."

"Of course," Dumbledore said, and he left.

Snape started to follow, but he stopped at the door and looked back at her. He wanted to stay with her, to offer what comfort he could, but it would have been wholly inappropriate because it would have involved a lot of holding her in his arms and whispering consoling words into her hair. "If you need anything, Miss Talmadge, please don't hesitate to call on me." With one last look at her, Snape followed Dumbledore down the hall.

##########

Christmas dinner was a somber affair. The few students who remained sat clustered around one table with the remaining staff. Tevis sat with them, present only physically, eating next to nothing. The expected missive from her father had not arrived, but she had not given up hope. In the meantime, certain that he was indeed still alive, she was consumed with worry for him. She spoke little beyond responding to totally unwanted Christmas blessings and left the table as soon as she could decently do so.

##########

Tevis stumbled through the day, not sure she'd remember any one part of it tomorrow. She and Snape had apparated from Hogsmeade to Lakenheath AFB this morning. She'd been taken to see her father's Commanding Officer. She'd asked to see her father's body, needing that confirmation. She'd been sure they would say they couldn't produce a body, that the body had not been recovered, and she would use that as a reason to keep clinging to the desperate hope that he was still alive. And while they had refused her request, it wasn't because they didn't have a body to produce but that the body had been too badly mangled and burned for viewing by a sixteen-year old child. The part of Tevis that was clinging to the fantasy that her father was still alive asked how they were sure the remains belonged to her father, and when she was handed her father's dog tags, she'd nearly crumpled to the floor. This was real – it was happening. Her father was dead.

The General had then taken Tevis through her father's survivor's benefits. Thankfully Snape was there with her and he was listening, because Tevis couldn't comprehend anything through the fog of her grief. None of it made sense – none of it sunk in.

The memorial service had been interminably long, more of a celebration of patriotism than a goodbye to a man who had lived by its code. Tevis had been presented with a neatly-folded flag, its corners so sharp they looked as if they might cut, but she'd been unable to look up when the Missing Man formation flew overhead.

When it was over, there'd been a luncheon, then, finally, she was free to go. Many who saw Tevis that day marveled at the mature young lady who handled herself so well in the face of adversity. But the truth was that Tevis was numb and was operating on autopilot, walking, talking when required, but not feeling, not acknowledging. She drew strength from Snape's quiet presence, his hand almost constantly at her elbow.

When Snape escorted her back to her room, he said, "I have added you to my wards, Miss Talmadge, for the remainder of the holiday break. If you need me, for anything, please don't hesitate to come to my office."

"Thank you, for everything," she managed to say, her eyes full of tears. "I don't know how I could have gotten through today without you."

Snape had the strongest urge to take her in his arms, to comfort her. The funeral today had affected him as well. He'd never seen a military funeral, and the traditions and the circumstance had been incredibly moving. Taps had actually brought tears to his eyes. But he resisted the urge to reach out to her. "You are very welcome. I am so sorry about your father."

Tevis tried to smile as she bid him good night.

After freshening up, Snape reported to Dumbledore.

"How is Miss Talmadge, Severus?"

"She is distraught, of course, but remarkably self-possessed. She's quite an extraordinary young woman."

"Our Harry seems quite taken with her," Dumbledore noted.

Snape snorted at his use of the word "our". Potter was nothing to him. "I've added her to my wards and told her to come to me should she need anything." Snape thought he should probably not keep that to himself, knowing as he did that Albus Dumbledore knew everything that happened in this castle.

"That's most generous of you," the Headmaster noted approvingly.

"It's what I would do for any student," Snape said nonchalantly, hoping Dumbledore wouldn't see that for the lie it was.

"We shall have to keep a close eye on her for a while."

Suddenly, Snape gasped and clutched his left forearm.

"You are being called?" Dumbledore asked, his old eyes filled with concern.

Snape nodded.

"We're through here in any event. Best not to keep him waiting. Return safely, my friend."

##########

Tears in her eyes, Tevis knocked on Snape's office door. She shouldn't be here, she knew. It was the middle of the night. But Snape had her flag and her father's dog tags, and the overwhelming desire to hold those things had come over Tevis at some point during her sleepless night, and she'd made her way down here.

When she received no response, she knocked louder. Still hearing nothing, Tevis pushed the door open slightly.

"Professor?" she called softly, entering the unlit room. She lumosed her wand and looked around the office. It was empty. She spotted her flag on Professor Snape's desk – he'd placed it in a beautiful wooden flag case. Tevis drew a finger over it wonderingly, then picked it up. The tags were here, too, and she took those as well. She'd leave a note, telling Snape she stopped by and picked up her things.

It was as she was looking for parchment that she heard the low moaning sound, and she stopped, not really sure she'd heard anything at all. Until she heard it again. It was a low guttural sound, as of someone in great pain.

Tevis hesitated, but only for a moment. She put the flag and the dog tags back on the desk and crossed the room to the door she knew led to Snape's personal quarters. She hesitated again before slowly opening the door. "Professor?" she called softly. She expected him to have different, stronger protections on his personal living space, but the door gave way with no resistance.

Closer to the source, the moan was louder now.

"Professor, are you okay?" she called into the darkness.

There was no response.

Tevis lit the lamps she located by her wand's light and extinguished her wand. She could now see a small apartment, sitting room and kitchenette to the right, bedroom to the left, separated by a partition. The rooms looked lived in by a man, decorated in rich browns and mahoganies and greens.

Another moan came from the area of the bedroom, and Tevis made her way there cautiously. "Professor?" she tried again. "Are you all right?"

Tevis lit more lamps and gasped at what their light revealed. Snape lay sprawled upon the bed, eyes closed. Tevis at first thought he was passed out drunk, but then she began to catalog the injuries: right eye puffed up and swollen closed; blood under the nose; cut on the right cheek, blood dried beneath it; deep scratches on the left arm. And those were just the wounds she could see. What the hell had happened to him?

"Professor!" she exclaimed, dropping to her knees at the side of his bed. "What happened to you? Who did this to you?"

Snape did not respond, and she stood up. "I'll get help. I'll get the nurse."

"No!" he said, very clearly and very firmly. "Go. Just go."

Tevis sat gingerly on the bed. "I can't leave you like this. Will you let me help you?"

"Water," he moaned.

"Okay." Tevis went back out into the kitchen, found a glass in a cupboard, and filled it from the tap. She grabbed a towel and wet it, then went back in to the injured Professor.

"Here," she said. His hand was shaking so badly he spilled some of the water on himself. Tevis put her hand over his, then used her other hand to help him raise his head. He took a small sip, which was all he seemed capable of.

"Thank you."

"What happened to you?" she whispered. He looked so horrid she was afraid he'd shatter if she spoke too loudly.

"Doesn't matter," he muttered.

Tevis used the wet towel to gently clean the cut on his cheek and the blood from under his nose. She then cleaned the scratches on his arm. "Do you have other injuries?" she asked. He must, she knew, some of them likely internal, based on the way he'd been moaning.

"Doesn't matter," he said again. "It'll be . . . better tomorrow."

She could tell he spoke from experience. "Are you sure I can't get someone for you?"

"No. Yes . . . nothing they . . . can do. Better . . . tomorrow."

An empty bottle lay on the floor by the bed, and Tevis picked it up and sniffed it. "Was this a pain relieving potion? Did you take this already?"

Snape nodded. "Starting to work."

"Good. I'd hate to think you were in pain," she said wryly.

Snape grimaced a smile, and Tevis realized with a start that he was missing a tooth. "You look like a hockey player."

"A . . . what?"

"Never mind."

Tevis sat by Snape for a time. He seemed to fade in and out of coherence, mumbling crazily one minute, lucid and calm the next. She thought the pain reliever must have been pretty powerful to have affected his mind like this. In one of his lucid moments, he asked why she was there, but he seemed to lose focus before she could answer him.

Tevis was startled awake, unaware she'd fallen asleep slumped over on Snape's bed. By the light of the lamps, she saw Snape's one good eye was open, and he was looking at her.

"Sorry," she said, her voice thick, her tongue fuzzy. "Nodded off."

"Should go," he offered weakly.

"I'll stay, thanks." She reached over to touch his cheek, and he winced. "Someone hit you."

"Yes," he confirmed.

"Will you tell me who?"

"Doesn't matter."

"I just thought – if you die before morning, I'll at least know who to seek vengeance on."

The thought of this child seeking vengeance on the Dark Lord was so ludicrous that Snape snorted with laughter, a move he instantly regretted as it reminded him about his ribs, or at least the couple he thought had probably been fractured. The Skelegro bottle he'd emptied had rolled under the bed.

He moaned again, laughter forgotten, and Tevis apologized. "Bottle," he gasped. "Medicine chest . . . in bathroom . . . top shelf . . . brown."

Tevis jumped up to find what he'd requested. "This one?" she asked when she returned. It was identical to the bottle she'd seen on the floor earlier.

He held his hand out for it. Tevis removed the stopper and helped him to drink it all down.

"You should . . . go now." He never knew how he was going to react to this potion, and he'd never had to take so much of it before.

Tevis was still reluctant to leave. "I'll stay a bit longer."

When Snape started to shiver, Tevis helped him under the covers. When she tried to pull away, his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, surprising her. She'd thought he was asleep. He surprised her again by pulling her down on the bed beside him.

"I'm sorry . . . about your father," he murmured.

Tears sprang immediately to her eyes. "Thank you," she said.

She felt Snape's nose against her cheek, then felt him press his lips to the corner of her eye where the tears had collected. She turned to face him. "You're not yourself," she said.

"No. Part of me . . . gone . . . lose a bit more . . . every time. Want it to stop . . . want it all to stop . . . before I'm all gone." He touched her cheek with one long finger. "So beautiful," he breathed.

"That must be the medicine talking," Tevis said bravely, though she felt anything but brave. Her body was reacting in new and dangerous ways to his touch, his kiss, his proximity. She wanted him to keep touching her, to touch her in other places, to kiss her on the lips this time, but she didn't know how to ask and was afraid that he'd say no if she found the words. There was a hole in her very center caused by the loss of her father, and she thought perhaps she could fill it with him.

Both of Snape's eyes were closed now, and Tevis tentatively reached up to kiss his lips. They were surprisingly soft, and not only did he not jerk away at the contact, his lips parted slightly as he returned the attention. She felt the tip of his tongue poke gently between her lips, seeking, asking. Her own tongue went out to greet his, and they began to duel, like two mongrel dogs, fighting over territory.

Tevis' heart began to pound in her chest, and she felt a strange tingling wetness between her legs which was really rather pleasant. She reached a hand tentatively and placed it on Snape's hip. He reciprocated by placing a hand directly under her breast.

Tevis wanted him to touch her there, so she moved his hand up, placing it over her breast, and Snape took it from there. He drew a thumb over the already-hardened nipple, making her gasp. There was too much fabric in the way, and Snape worked his hand under her shirt. He couldn't unclasp her bra in this position, so he settled for pushing it up, releasing the breast from its covering. His thumb returned to her nipple and was then joined by a finger. When he rolled her nipple between them, Tevis felt her excitement increase tenfold, and she moaned.

Tevis' nervous, fumbling fingers dropped until she found what she was looking for, erect and straining at its confines. She didn't know how one went about undressing a prone man whose lips and hands were already occupied, so she settled for stroking him through the fabric, testing the width, feeling him twitch beneath her ministrations.

Snape moaned into her mouth, then reached down to undo the buttons on his pants. He freed himself with a bit of difficulty, then took her hand and placed it on his now bare flesh. It was Tevis' turn to moan as she enveloped it in her hand, feeling its weight and its growing length and the wetness at its end, wanting to feel it inside her.

Snape began to moan more urgently. Though Tevis had never done this before, she somehow knew that he was going to come if she continued what she was doing, and she didn't want that. Not yet. She took her hand away, and Snape actually growled.

"A minute," she said, and it was her turn to free herself from the confines of her pajama pants.

"I want you," she said, not entirely sure she was talking to the Snape who was rational and who would remember this tomorrow. She no longer cared. She was filled with a want so deep it was an ache, and if this didn't fill that gaping wound, she thought she would disappear inside it. She needed this for her own sanity.

Rational didn't seem to be required, though. Snape rolled onto her, crushing her with his weight. She spread her legs wider to allow him to settle between them. Now that the moment of truth had arrived, she was a little afraid, but the want outweighed the fear, and when she felt him place the head of his cock at her entrance, she didn't ask him to be gentle or to go easy on her since this was her first time. He ran a finger through her slick folds, testing, and she shuddered.

And then he drove into her with the force of a jack hammer. Tevis felt something inside her tear, and she was rendered momentarily senseless by the pain. This was not going to be a leisurely, teasing fuck. It was brutal in its intensity and its grasping need, and Tevis tried to hold on as tightly as she could to Snape's back, his shoulders, his buttocks. When the burst of pain had gone and she grew accustomed to his hardness pistoning in and out of her, another sensation began to take hold. She felt it building, like the tide upon the beach, but before it could crest, Snape began to empty himself into her with long deep desperate strokes. He came for what felt like forever, then lay panting atop her. She felt his cock begin to shrink until it simply fell out of her along with a rush of his essence.

Snape rolled off of her, looked at her with his one good eye, and said, "Now if you'd please turn to Chapter Eleven."

Then he closed his eye and began to snore.

Tevis giggled. That had to be the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to her.

She lay there for a time, looking at Snape, feeling the changes inside herself. She was no longer a virgin, no longer a child. She'd been with a man, the man fate had so strangely chosen for her. As she looked at him, a wave of tenderness washed over her for this grouchy, hurting, lonely man. And then she felt a little irritated. How dare he get his rocks off and then immediately fall asleep, leaving her lying here – wanting still? She felt more of Snape's semen drool out of her and thought what a shame it was to waste. One hand drifted up to roll a nipple, as Snape had done. The other reached over and captured one of Snape's hands and positioned it between her legs. When she found the deposit Snape had left, she used it to lubricate what was the best self-induced orgasm she'd ever had. Okay, they'd all been self-induced to this point, but still.

When she was finished, she stared at Snape some more. She doubted that he'd remember this tomorrow, so she intended to get every minute she could from this experience. If she thought he wouldn't wake up at some point and kill her, she'd stay the entire night. But she really should go, now that it appeared he wasn't in mortal danger, and she sat up.

When she did, she realized that Severus (as she now thought of him) hadn't tucked himself away. His now flaccid and hopefully contented penis lay quietly along his thigh, his pants at half mast. She wondered if she should try to redress him, but she decided against chancing she'd wake him. Poor thing looked like he needed sleep more than even a doctor.

Tevis reached over and kissed his cheek, then, because she couldn't help herself, she leaned down to kiss Little Severus (as she now thought of him). With one last look at her sleeping love, Tevis got up and left, the hole in her gut quite a lot smaller.

##########

Snape returned slowly to consciousness, aware first that he was in his own bed, then that every part of his body hurt. He lay without moving, not sure how extensive the injuries might be this time, his head cloudy with the effects of the potion he'd surely taken last night. If he was going to suffer a hangover, he should at least have had the satisfaction of enjoying a night of revelry. Such had not been the case, he knew.

He lay quietly and let the memories come, knowing from experience that they would no matter how hard he tried to prevent it. Trying to push them away made them push back that much harder.

He remembered being summoned late yesterday, during his meeting with Dumbledore after accompanying Tevis Talmadge to her father's funeral. Even Dumbledore knew how Voldemort valued not merely punctuality, but the loyalty he thought it demonstrated. If you were first to arrive, you were his favorite, at least for a while. If you were last . . . well, last was something to be avoided at all cost. Unfortunately, _someone _had to be last.

Yesterday, again unfortunately, that had been Snape. The Dark Lord, on days he was in a beneficent mood, recognized that Severus couldn't disapparate immediately when called and made allowances for the fact that Snape had to make his way from wherever he might be in the castle at the time of the calling to outside the grounds before he could disapparate. Yesterday, unfortunately yet again, had not been a beneficent day. Ebenezer Scrooge had nothing on Tom Riddle.

Severus had, of course, realized immediately upon apparating into the circle that he was the last. Years of training kept his face impassive upon this discovery, but he couldn't keep his insides from churning.

Voldemort appeared to be lost in thought as he sat at the "head" of the circle. If he were anyone else, Snape might have hoped his arrival had simply gone unnoticed. But Voldemort, like Albus Dumbledore, noticed _everything_.

"My friends," he said.

And as one, the men and women around him dropped to their knees, willing supplicants to their Lord and Master, and bowed to the ground. "My Lord," they murmured in response.

He let them stay there a moment before saying, "Please rise." As they started to do so, he added, "All except you, Severus, my son."

Snape cringed and lowered himself back to the ground.

"You were late," he heard, the voice a mere inches away.

"My sincerest apologies, Master," Snape said to the ground. He knew it was pointless to try to explain, to argue or bargain, so he kept quiet.

"You know how I value loyalty."

"Yes, my Lord."

"And yet, you were late."

"Yes, my Lord."

"What shall I do with you, Severus?"

"I must be punished, my Lord." It was the expected response.

"Yes, my son, it appears that you must accept the consequences for your actions. Lucius, Walden, Bellatrix," the Dark Lord commanded, and three members of the circle met in the middle. "Come."

They approached the still-prone Snape and stood over him. "Walden, you may begin," Voldemort invited. They all knew the rules – only Voldemort himself was allowed to use magic now.

Walden MacNair enjoyed delivering pain, and he was only too happy to oblige his master. He approached Snape, lying motionless on the ground, contemplating his options. He finally made up his mind, and without warning, threw all of his considerable weight onto the man lying on the ground. Snape's breath was driven out of him with a whoosh, and he thought he heard a couple of ribs crack as he made forcible contact with the ground. Snape gasped for air and curled into a ball on his side. MacNair straightened up, a pleased grin on his ugly face.

"Lucius," Voldemort said.

Malfoy approached Snape. Though he didn't enjoy this as much as his colleagues and actually rather liked Severus Snape, he knew better than to show the man on the ground any overt mercy. That wouldn't go well for either of them. Lucius drew his foot back and kicked Snape in the face. His act of undetected mercy: he used the side of his foot and not his toe.

Stars exploded inside Snape's head on contact, and he couldn't keep himself from grunting in pain.

"Bella," Voldemort said quietly.

Bellatrix LeStrange approached Snape with cat-like litheness, circling her prey, looking for a weakness upon which to pounce. Bella understood the _psychology _of pain, had studied it in all its forms, and knew that the _expectancy _of pain increased the actual pain at least two-fold. She circled Snape twice, enjoying the way he cringed whenever she came within his field of vision. Finally, she kicked him between the legs. Her maniacal laugh rang through the air as Snape curled in on himself, forcing himself to breath through the excruciating pain.

But even that pain was forgotten in a moment when Voldemort pointed his wand at the man on the ground and said, "Crucio." Four times Snape was subjected to the unforgivable, each time the respite between the curses shorter, the duration a bit longer, until Snape had no choice but to give vent to the scream that had been wanting to emerge from his lips since Bella's blow. Only then, when he'd shown his weakness, did Voldemort let him catch his breath.

Snape lay on the ground, panting, trying not to whimper. He hoped his sins had been sufficiently atoned for, but her feared he was wrong. He was. But at least his next punishment wasn't quite so painful. Humiliating to the extreme, but not painful.

He'd seen it before, and he knew what was going to happen as soon as Voldemort said, "Salaxio." Immediately, Snape felt the flush of arousal, deep and biting, and he felt his cock harden instantly despite his attempts to prevent it. When Voldemort said, "Divestis," Snape expected his clothes to disappear, but it didn't lessen the shame any when they did so.

"Stand," the Dark Lord commanded, and Snape had no choice but to do so.

He stood before them all, naked and aroused, with nowhere to hide. He knew if he tried to cover himself, he would provoke his Master's wrath, so he did not. He stood, eyes up, hands at his sides, willing himself away from this place.

"And now, my friends, we play," Voldemort announced clapping his hands gleefully. From somewhere, several young, nubile, barely-clad bodies, both male and female, appeared and began to mingle with the assembled Death Eaters. "Happy Christmas to you all!"

"Of course you, my dear Severus, can only watch."

"Yes, My Lord." He'd known this was to be what he hoped was his final punishment – the spell that created immense desire and a sense-numbing yearning for release, but would not allow for that release, all the while watching his fellows engaging in various sexual acts all around him. Normally, his disgust at what was being done so publicly would have overwhelmed any desire to participate or any voyeuristic thrill, but under the influence of the salaxio, he was helpless, and he stood for over an hour, longing for release, his hands clamped to his sides so that he wouldn't take himself in hand, only his pride preventing him from begging for it mindlessly, his member as rigid as it had ever been before, until the spell began to fade.

Snape did not redress until Voldemort dismissed them all, after which he stumbled away, disapparated to the gates of Hogwarts, and somehow made his way to his room. He didn't remember arriving here or getting into bed.

He'd called them there for a Christmas party – a humiliating, degrading Christmas orgy! Snape wanted to throw up, and because he thought he might do so, he rolled to the edge of the bed.

Wait a minute. His pants were halfway down his thighs, his penis hanging loose for all the world to see, had all the world been here now. What on earth . . . another memory battered at the corners of his bruised brain as he spotted two empty potion bottles on the bedside table – a body, in the bed with him – a young, warm, inviting body, underneath his as he drove into . . . her? yes, her . . . over and over again with the urgent lust he'd been unable to satisfy earlier. Who was she, and where had she come from? His mind supplied the answer in the form of a memory, seen through one open eye – Tevis Talmadge.

Snape promptly vomited all over the floor.

Perhaps it had been a dream, not a memory, he told himself as he lay panting on the bed. Perhaps the blood in his bed was his own and not that of a young girl – a student! – whose virginity he'd stolen. But when Snape finally got out of bed and went into his office later that morning, he discovered the flag was missing, and he knew it hadn't been a dream. She'd been here last night. He knew he'd added her to the wards which would allow her entrance to his office, but apparently he'd been in such bad shape last night, he'd neglected to replenish the wards around his private living quarters. Snape dropped into his chair, his pounding head between his hands. He sat that way for a long, long time.

##########

Tevis had missed Harry over the holiday and was looking forward to seeing him again. She hugged him as soon as she could decently do so. "Did you have a nice Christmas?"

"It was great. Hectic, but great. How about you?"

"It was . . . I really need to talk to you. Can you come to my room tonight?" He knew nothing about what had transpired in her life over the break, not even about the death of her father. She hadn't owled him, thinking that news such as this was best shared in person. Now she had so much more to say.

"Don't I always?" he joked. "Is everything okay?"

"No. Not really. But now's not the time. We'll talk tonight."

##########

Harry could hear the guitar before he knocked on the door. Tevis opened it immediately. She'd been expecting him. "Come on in."

She sat on the bed, and Harry took the chair before the desk.

"Two days before Christmas," Tevis began, "Dumbledore came to see me." Tevis' eyes filled with tears, causing Harry's immediate concern that Snape had finally gone to Dumbledore about Tevis and that she was being expelled. She seemed unable to continue, so Harry asked, "Are you being expelled?"

She shook her head. "No. It's worse. My father . . . my father is dead."

"What? Oh, Tevis! What happened?" Harry got up and sat beside her on the bed. He put a comforting arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.

"He crashed. Training accident. Some faulty equipment on the plane."

"I'm _so_ sorry," he said, pulling her into a hug.

Tevis allowed herself to seek his solace for a few moments, crying into his shoulder. After a time, she pulled away and wiped the tears from her face.

"What happens to you now?"

Tevis sniffed and shrugged. "I asked the same thing, and I'm not entirely sure. I have no relatives. I won't be seventeen until February, so . . . who knows? Dumbledore said I should just . . . stay."

"I'm so sorry," Harry said again. "How horrible – right before Christmas. And you were here all alone. You should have owled me. I would have come back."

"I wasn't alone. Dumbledore was great. And Professor Snape went with me to the funeral."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. And there's something else I need to tell you. That night, after the funeral, I went down to Professor Snape's quarters. He'd brought some of my dad's things back for me, and I wanted them, you know? Just to hold them? So I went down there. At first, I thought he wasn't in, but then I heard this moaning noise. I thought he might be hurt or something, so I went into his private quarters to check."

_Oh God_! Harry thought. _Don't let her tell me she saw Snape with a woman. Or a man. Or maybe worse yet, Snape by himself!_

"He was lying on the bed. He looked like he'd been run over by a train. He was cut and bruised, and I think he'd been cursed, probably multiple times. He could hardly move, and he seemed to be in and out of consciousness."

This wasn't what he'd expected. "What happened to him?"

"He wouldn't or couldn't tell me. I wanted to get help, but he refused. I cleaned up his cuts, the ones I could see anyway, and he asked me to get him a potion. After he drank it, he seemed to feel a little better, pain wise, but he got . . . weird. I was going to stay with him for a while, just to make sure he was okay. I covered him with a blanket, and he grabbed my hand and pulled me onto the bed."

"Oh my God, Tevis! He didn't . . ."

"I kissed him. I probably shouldn't have, but I felt so . . . empty inside, and it felt so good to have someone hold me. Then he . . . um . . . we . . . we made love." Although as fast and mindless as that had been, "making love" probably wasn't the best descriptor.

Harry's bottom jaw dropped. "He raped you?" he whispered.

"No!" Tevis said immediately. "If anything, _I_ raped _him_. I knew he was under the influence of whatever was in that potion and probably the after-effects of whatever he'd been cursed with, but I just wanted him to touch me . . . to hold me, so badly, I didn't think."

Harry covered his face with his hands. "Were you . . .?

"A virgin?" she finished. "I was. Not anymore." She said this last rather proudly. "I doubt he even remembers it happened, though. When he was . . . finished, he rolled off me and asked me to turn to Chapter Eleven. See? He wasn't in his right mind. I took advantage of him." She decided not to tell him about what she'd done after he'd fallen asleep. He might think she was . . . sex-crazed or something.

"Are you going to tell him?"

"No. He wouldn't believe me, and I wouldn't blame him. I've been after him for months. If I went to him with this story, he'd only think I was trying to force him into a relationship."

"Aren't you?" Harry challenged.

"Not like this. And I like to think of it as . . . coaxing."

"Jesus, Tevis. Your holiday was certainly not boring."

"Harry, you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone about Severus and me."

"Severus?" Harry repeated, a pained expression on his face.

"Well, it's hard to think of him as Professor Snape after we . . ."

Harry interrupted her. "No! Don't say it again! I'm already going to have to scrub my brain to get the image out!"

"Promise me, Harry."

Harry promised. Snape would likely be fired if word got out about what he'd done, whether Tevis took the blame or not, and as much as he disliked the man, it didn't sound as though he'd been responsible for what happened. But what had happened to Snape? Who had attacked him?

"Tevis, promise _me _you'll be careful."

"I will, Harry. Thank you for being my friend."

Harry sighed. "I suppose it only makes sense that I'd attract people with incredibly faulty judgment. Birds of a feather, they say. I really am sorry about your dad," he added softly.

"Me, too," Tevis said sadly.

##########

Harry and Tevis sat together in the Great Hall, the last of a few straggling students. It had become Harry's custom to eat dinner later, in order to eat with Tevis. They commonly ate their last meal of the day in relative solitude. Tonight, the last two students were just leaving, and aside from Professor Snape, who strangely still sat at the head table, apparently nursing whatever was contained in his goblet, they were alone. If he'd been paying attention, Harry might have noticed that Snape had been lingering longer and longer over his own dinner of late, almost as though he was waiting for Tevis to finish her own dinner.

Tevis _had _been paying attention, and she _had _noticed, and it made her happy inside.

"Tevis, are you all right?" Harry asked from across the table. He'd noticed her picking at her food, her normally hearty appetite seemingly having deserted her.

"I'm not hungry," she said, then put her hand over her mouth and gagged.

Harry jumped back in alarm. "Do you feel sick?!"

"Something like that," she said miserably. "Harry, I think I'm pregnant." It was the end of February, two months after her encounter with Professor Snape. She hadn't had a period since, and two weeks ago, she'd started feeling nauseous and light-headed.

Harry stared at her, shocked. "Oh my God!" he whispered, slanting a quick glance at the head table, where Snape seemed to be watching them without trying to appear as though he was watching them. "That time with Snape?"

Tevis stared at him with fire in her eyes. "Of course that time with Snape! Do you think I've slept with someone else?!" she hissed.

"No, of course not," Harry hurried to say. "What are you going to do?"

"What _can_ I do? I won't . . . the baby won't come until school's out. I'm pretty sure I can hide it until June. These robes will finally be good for something." And living alone would help, too.

Harry looked at Snape again, and if the man had any doubt that they were talking about him, Harry's constant looks in his direction should take care of them. "Are you going to tell him?"

"Not now. Not until the school year is over. He has the right to know. Although I suspect he's not going to believe it's his. I mean, would _you, _if you couldn't remember having sex with someone?"

"That's a fair point," Harry conceded. "Are you sure he doesn't remember?"

Tevis shrugged. "He's never said anything."

Harry then gave voice to the thought that had been haunting Tevis since she'd begun to actually believe that she was carrying Snape's child. "So what will you do if you tell him and he doesn't believe you?"

"I don't know," she said quietly. "Muggle DNA testing? Harry, you have to help me keep this secret. Severus could get into a lot of trouble. And would you _stop_ looking at him!"

"Sorry. Of course I'll help you. I'll do whatever I can."

Tevis was quiet for a moment. "You have to know that if word gets out, people are going to think it's yours."

That was most likely true, given the amount of time they'd been spending together over the past few months. Everyone had assumed they were "together", and they'd done nothing to refute that. "If you want me to, I'll tell people it _is_ mine," Harry offered sincerely.

Tevis reached across the table and covered his hand with hers (a gesture which Snape at the head table greeted with a slightly raised eyebrow). "Thank you, Harry. That's incredibly sweet of you. But I don't want you to lie for me."

Harry swallowed audibly. "Tevis, if the time comes, and Snape does deny the baby is his, I'll . . . I'll be here for you."

Tevis squeezed his hand and then let him go. "What would I do without you? Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Are you finished?"

"I'm done." They both stood up, and their plates disappeared.

And Snape watched them leave the Great Hall together.

##########

Defense Against the Dark Arts class had gotten more interesting as the year progressed and the complexity of the blocks and hexes they were introduced to grew. Harry usually partnered with Tevis in class, but today, for reasons known only to Snape, he'd split them up. Harry was working with Seamus, and Snape had partnered Tevis with Pansy Parkinson, the nasty-tempered Slytherin. If Harry hadn't known Tevis' magic far outstripped Parkinsons', he might have been worried about his friend. Of course, he wasn't counting on the Slytherin's desire to get back at Tevis for her betrayal of Draco Malfoy earlier in the year. No one could hold a grudge like a Slytherin.

Harry turned just in time to see Tevis flying backward through the air. They weren't supposed to have started yet – Parkinson must have hexed Tevis when she wasn't expecting it. Tevis slammed against the wall at the back of the classroom and slumped to the floor, unconscious.

"Tevis!" Harry shouted and ran to her side. He dropped to his knees beside her still form, glaring up at Parkinson. "What did you do to her?"

"Here, now. What's the problem?" said Snape, swooping through the crowd gathered around them.

"She hit Tevis with something!" Harry said, indicating Parkinson, who looked back at them with a smug expression on her face. "When her back was turned, I'd wager!"

"Calm down, Potter," Snape ordered. "She's not the first person to be hit by a hex. She'll be fine."

"I don't think she's breathing, sir!" Harry said. Indeed, Tevis' chest was very still. "You've got to do something!"

Snape looked at Tevis then and began to get a little concerned. Were her lips turning blue, or was that his imagination? He pointed his wand at her.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked.

"Relax, Potter. I'm going to ennervate her."

Harry was already worried about the effects of whatever curse had been used on the baby Tevis was carrying, not to mention that she'd just been tossed into a wall. He had no idea if magic that didn't harm a full-grown person could hurt a developing witch or wizard in the womb. He had to tell Snape, before something was done and it was too late to fix.

"Sir, you don't understand. Tevis is . . . she's pregnant!"

Harry heard several gasps from the assembled crowd behind him. Snape stared at him incredulously, but only for a moment. Then he bent down, scooped Tevis into his arms, and carried her from the room.

##########

Tevis woke in the hospital wing as she was being placed onto a bed. She was being held by Snape's strong arms. Any other time, that would have thrilled her, but now she had no idea what was going on. Snape had ennervated her on the way here, knowing the spell was safe to use on an expectant mother, and he knew that she was breathing. She hadn't awoken, however, until they'd arrived here.

"What's going on?" she asked as Madam Pomfrey began to fuss around her.

"It's all right now, dear. You're going to be just fine." The little nurse waved her wand, and curtains appeared around Tevis' bed, shutting Snape out, as well as Harry, who appeared at a run and skidded to a stop beside Snape.

"Tevis!" he called, aware that she must be behind the curtain.

"Harry, is that you?" she called back.

"Yes. I'm sorry, Tevis," he said loudly. "I had to tell them. About the baby. They had to know."

Harry didn't get a response from Tevis, and he hoped she wasn't too angry. He hadn't had any choice! Harry chanced a quick sideways look at Snape – the Professor looked stunned. When he turned his eyes to Harry and caught him looking, he conjured up a sneer from long practice, but his heart didn't seem to be in it.

They waited in silence together until Madam Pomfrey pushed the curtain aside. Harry immediately went to Tevis' side and took her hand. She was in a hospital gown now, lying in the bed beneath the sheet, covered to her chest. "Are you all right?" he asked anxiously.

"I'm fine," she assured him.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

She squeezed his hand. "It's okay," she assured him.

"Is she going to be all right, Madam Pomfrey?" Harry asked.

The nurse looked hesitantly at Tevis, then at Harry, then at Snape. "Technically, I shouldn't be discussing this with anyone but the patient and her family."

"It's all right, Madam Pomfrey," Tevis said. "I haven't got any family. You can tell them whatever you've got to say."

The witch cleared her throat. "Miss Talmadge will be just fine. The curse didn't hurt her at all. Hitting the wall with her head, on the other hand . . ."

"And . . . and the child?" Snape asked, forcing the words from his mouth.

"The child is fine, by all accounts developing just as she should be."

"She?" Tevis repeated. "It's a girl?"

"You didn't know?" Madam Pomfrey asked. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Have you had any pre-natal care at all, dear?"

Tevis dropped her eyes. "I've been taking vitamins." She'd read about the importance of certain vitamins to a developing baby. "But I haven't seen anyone."

"Well, that's going to change now," she instructed briskly. "Your baby is approximately twenty centimeters, crown to rump, and she weighs around five hundred grams. In the next few weeks, her lungs will be developing, her eyes will open completely, and her brain will be forming. It's important that you both get proper care from here on out. Is she active?"

"Very," Tevis said, rubbing her belly over the sheet. "In fact, she's awake right now. Harry, give me your hand."

Tevis threw the sheet off and took Harry's hand, placing it on the side of her distended abdomen. "Wait a second," she instructed. After a moment, she said, "There! Did you feel it?"

Harry had – he'd felt the movement beneath her hand, the smallest of flutters, and he looked at her in wonder. "I did!"

"Ah, that'll be the Headmaster," Madam Pomfrey noted when the sound of the door opening could be heard. "I'll be right back, Miss Talmadge."

Madam Pomfrey bustled out from behind the screen. Tevis noticed Snape staring, dumbstruck, at her belly. "Professor Snape, would you like to . . .?" She indicated her stomach, inviting him to feel the baby's movement as well.

"Hmmm?" he started. "Oh no, I couldn't possibly . . ."

"It's okay," Tevis reassured him. "Let me have your hand."

Snape knew he shouldn't, but he took a step toward the bed and extended his hand to her. She took his large hand into her own smaller one, and he had to fight the urge to pull back at the now-familiar electrical sensation he felt at her touch. She placed his hand on her belly, and he marveled at how big she was already. How had he not noticed? Robes could hide a multitude of sins.

Just as standing there with his hand on her abdomen was becoming more than a little awkward, he felt it – the flicker of life beneath his hand. He looked up at her, and she smiled at him. He could not speak. The voices of the Headmaster and the mediwitch were getting louder as they approached, and Snape snatched his hand guiltily away.

"Miss Talmadge," Dumbledore said once he'd rounded the screen. "How are you, my dear?"

"I'm fine, sir. Thank you."

"Severus, Harry, would you leave us, please? Miss Talmadge and I have important matters to discuss."

"I'll see you later," Harry promised.

Tevis smiled weakly in return. Snape looked at her as though he wanted to say something, but he pressed his lips tighter together, whirled and left without a sound. Harry followed him out.

Harry and Snape parted ways when the hallway split to take them to their separate destinations. As Snape entered his dungeon classroom, to find the rest of the class had deserted it when their teacher had not returned, he wondered if this was the last time he'd enter it. He knew what the Headmaster was discussing with Tevis, and if she told Dumbledore about her encounter with Snape over the Christmas holiday, he would be unemployed by the end of the day. Maybe he should prepare his letter of resignation now – resign before he could be fired.

The part of him that liked calling the castle home and liked, just a little, teaching the dunderheads entrusted to him, argued that maybe, just maybe, the child wasn't his. Maybe, just maybe, she'd been with someone else – Potter perhaps. They certainly spent a lot of time together and had seemed . . . close. And she had let Potter feel the baby's movements before inviting Snape to do so.

The baby. Snape had been so focused on his immediate future that he hadn't been able to spare a thought for the fact that Tevis was carrying a child, a real flesh and blood child, perhaps as the result of what he'd done to her all those months ago. The child he'd felt moving under his hand could very well be his – his daughter.

"Merlin!" he breathed out loud, and he had to extend a hand to his desk to steady himself against the sudden desire to faint like a schoolgirl. He breathed deeply, counting out ten breaths, before he felt like he had control of himself again.

He had to know – he had to know if the child was his. If it was, he needed to resign – now, today. And he needed to figure out what to do with Tevis until she gave birth, and then – oh God! – _gave birth!_ Snape – a father! The world was spinning again, and a knock on the dungeon door was exactly what he needed to bring him back to his senses. "Enter," he called in what he hoped was a steady voice.

When Harry entered, Snape wasn't sure how he felt about seeing the young man now. On the one hand, maybe Potter knew all about what he had done. On the other hand, _maybe Potter knew all about what he had done!_

"Professor, are you all right?" Harry asked softly.

Oh yes, he definitely knew. "Yes, of course," he bluffed. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I just wanted . . . Tevis was going to tell you . . . when school ended. She didn't want you to lose your job."

Snape busied himself with a stack of parchment scrolls on his desk. He ostensibly was straightening them, but all he succeeded in doing was making half of them roll onto the floor. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about." Again with the bluff. Snape crouched down to retrieve the lost scrolls, feeling Potter's eyes on him as he did so.

"She was afraid of this," the boy said softly. "That you . . . wouldn't remember." Harry's voice was low with horror at the realization that what Tevis feared was seemingly coming to pass. What would she do now? What would _he_ do now?

Snape gave up all pretext then, and he sat down hard on the cold stone floor and put his face in his hands. "What am I going to do?" he moaned.

Harry felt relief wash through him. "So you . . . remember, then?"

Snape nodded behind his hands. "Ironic, isn't it, how those moments we'd most like to relive differently have a way of coming back to bite us in the arse?"

"If it makes you feel any better, Professor," Harry offered, "she told me that it was her fault, that she could've walked away any time, and that she . . . didn't."

Snape dropped his hands and stared at Harry. "Imagine how much better I feel knowing that you retain your good opinion of me," he said, dripping sarcasm.

Harry dropped to his knees and began picking up loose scrolls. "I'm only trying to help," he said bitterly.

Snape sighed, which was as close as he was going to come to an apology. "How long have you known?"

"That she was pregnant? Since the end of February. Or did you mean, how long have I know that you and she . . .? She told me about that when I returned from Christmas break."

"Why did you not say something to the Headmaster?" Given their history, Snape would have thought that Potter would have jumped at the chance to get him fired. Snape certainly wouldn't have passed up a primo opportunity to get Potter expelled.

"Because she told me . . . what you were like that night. And I can guess where you'd been and what might have happened to you. And she told me that she . . . wanted it. You know how she'd been after you. She wasn't sure you'd even remember it the next day. It just didn't seem like something a bloke should lose his job over."

So Potter thought he knew where Snape had been and what he'd been doing, did he? Stupid boy knew _nothing_. But Snape didn't voice that thought. Instead, what he said was, "I never thought I'd be grateful that you are such an archetypical Gryffindor."

A corner of Harry's mouth turned up at this . . . compliment? He stood and repiled the scrolls on Snape's desk.

"So tell me, Mr. Brave and Chivalrous, what do I do now?" He looked up at the younger man from his place on the floor.

Harry shrugged. "Tevis was going to tell you once school got out. Wait until then. I don't think she'll tell Dumbledore now. You and she can figure it out then."

"I don't suppose there's a chance you and she . . .?" Snape asked, grasping at his last straw.

"Tevis and I are just friends. Really great friends, but just friends. I don't know what I would have done without her this year. Ron and Hermione are . . ."

Harry didn't finish, but Snape had eyes, and he had seen what Ron and Hermione were. "Feeling left out of the romantic pairing off of your classmates, are you, Mr. Potter?" Despite the fact that Harry was keeping this life-altering secret for him, Snape couldn't help the snark. It was who he was.

"If you only knew." _You'd make my life a living hell!_

"You should go, Potter. I suspect the Headmaster will be summoning you. If Miss Talmadge refuses to divulge her secret . . . _our _secret . . . you have to know that suspicion will fall upon you. You are the obvious choice, after all."

Harry nodded. "I know. I told her I'd tell everyone it _was _mine if she wanted me to. She said she doesn't want me lying for her."

"You may feel free to lie for _me_," Snape joked.

Harry smiled and offered a hand to Snape. Snape stared at it for a moment, then took it. Harry braced himself and helped Snape to his feet. He turned and made his way to the door, but the word "Potter" stopped him, and he turned around.

"Thank you for being there for her all these months," Snape said softly. "You are . . . a good friend."

Harry smiled again and left.

##########

As expected, Harry had been summoned to the Headmaster's office. Surprisingly enough, so had Snape. They shared a puzzled look before heading up the spiral staircase. Had Tevis told after all?

"You wanted to see me, Headmaster?" Harry stood before Dumbledore's desk.

"Yes, Harry," Dumbledore said gravely. "Please sit."

Harry dropped into the chair in front of the desk.

"Severus, please sit as well."

Snape sat in the chair next to Harry and turned to the Headmaster. Harry was amazed – Snape had to be terribly nervous about what Tevis had revealed and what it might mean for his future, but he showed not one single sign of it.

"How long have you known about Miss Talmadge's condition, Harry?" was the first question.

"Since late February, sir."

"Forgive me, Harry, but I must ask . . . Given the amount of time you've been spending together . . . Is the child yours?"

"No, sir."

Dumbledore stared at him, attempting to ascertain the truth of his denial. Harry stared back, guileless green eyes staring into the piercing blue. Dumbledore nodded. "Do you know who the father is?"

"Did you ask Tevis about this, sir?"

"I did." Dumbledore waited. "She refused to tell me. And you haven't answered my question."

Harry fidgeted nervously in his chair. "What was the question again?"

"Do you know the identity of the father of Miss Talmadge's baby?" Dumbledore repeated.

Harry sighed. "Yes, sir."

"And will you tell me?"

"If Tevis wouldn't tell you, then I don't think it's my place to do so. I'm sorry, sir, but I can't."

Dumbledore didn't seem pleased by this. "Let me ask you one final question, then, Harry. I'm sure we all want to see the right thing done by Miss Talmadge. Whoever is responsible for this should step forward and accept that responsibility like the upstanding young man I know he must be. Is the father a student here?"

It was apparent to Harry that Dumbledore didn't completely believe his denial. Unless . . . unless he suspected Snape and was trying to guilt the Professor into admitting his complicity.

"No, sir," Harry said truthfully.

"All right, then," Dumbledore said, apparently deciding he'd get nothing further out of Harry. He turned to Snape. "Severus, as Miss Talmadge's Head of House, do you have any useful information to share? Has she confided in you by chance?"

Snape was glad the Headmaster had asked two questions, and he focused on the latter. "No, sir. She has not confided in me. I was unaware of her condition until today."

"And you've heard no rumors about her involvement with anyone?"

"No, sir. She doesn't mingle much, as you know due to her condition – her _other_ condition. Potter is the only one I know of that spends any significant amount of time with her."

_Bastard!_ Harry thought, but he kept his mouth shut.

"What will happen to Miss Talmadge now, sir?" Snape asked. School rules were quite clear – pregnant students were not allowed at Hogwarts. They hadn't expelled many students for that particular infraction, but Tevis certainly wouldn't be the first if Dumbledore chose to go that route.

Dumbledore sighed. "I cannot expel her – she has nowhere else to go. I'd like to see the father of the child identified so that I can be assured that she will be taken care of once she leaves here, but that may be impossible if those who know do not speak up." He leveled an accusing glare at Harry for a moment before his shoulders slumped. "In any event, we may all have our hands full with other matters demanding our attention."

"Other matters, sir?" Harry asked excitedly. "Have you found another h–" Dumbledore's warning look stole the word from his mouth. "Have you found another, then?" he amended, blushing slightly, surprised and more than a little pleased that he knew something Snape apparently did not.

"I believe I have."

"And may I go with you to retrieve it?" Harry asked, wondering if Dumbledore would make the price of his accompaniment on this trip the name of Tevis' lover.

"I said that you could," Dumbledore stated. "And I stand by my word." With no strings attached apparently.

Harry beamed until he became aware that Snape was staring at him with something like . . . jealousy . . . in his eyes.

"I will let you know when preparations are finalized," Dumbledore promised. "Severus, please offer what support you can to Miss Talmadge during this trying time. She'll need all the help she can get."

##########

Harry had never been more frightened. Something was seriously wrong with Professor Dumbledore. The night had already been eventful. He'd been summoned to the Headmaster's office to accompany Dumbledore to retrieve the horcrux. On his way to the Headmaster's office, he'd encountered Professor Trelawney and learned that it had been Snape who had repeated the prophecy to Voldemort – Snape was responsible for his parents' death and Harry's own near murder. He'd had to tamp that surge of hatred down to concentrate on the mission, but it was still there in his gut, burning away, refusing to be ignored forever.

The journey into the cave had been taxing, and forcing Dumbledore to drink the cursed water was the hardest thing he'd ever done. By the time the basin was empty, Dumbledore was too weak to move and Harry had tears streaming down his face. But it had been worth it, he guessed – the horcrux had sat at the bottom of the basin, waiting for them. Harry had put it into his pocket before trying to assist the Headmaster, and it remained there now.

And then the inferi had come – Harry knew he'd be seeing them again in his nightmares. If Dumbledore hadn't somehow found the strength to fight them off, Harry wouldn't be standing here now.

Harry had disapparated them both back to Hogsmeade, supporting Dumbledore's weight almost entirely. The Headmaster had regained most of his strength through the shock of seeing the Dark Mark hovering above the Astronomy Tower. They'd borrowed brooms from Madam Rosmerta and had flown to the top of the tower with all haste.

And now Dumbledore wanted Snape, the one man Harry hated more than Voldemort himself. He was just about to go retrieve the bastard, vague plans of killing him immediately after he helped Dumbledore forming in his mind, when they'd heard footsteps running up the stairs.

Harry, still under the invisibility cloak, turned to look at Dumbledore. The Headmaster motioned him back into the shadows, and Harry moved there immediately.

Events transpired quickly for a time. The door flew open. Draco Malfoy burst through it. Harry felt his entire body go stiff, and he tipped over into the wall, leaning at an awkward angle. Malfoy shouted, "Expelliarmus!" Dumbledore's wand flew out of his hand, arced up into the air, and flew over the side of the tower.

And now time ground nearly to a halt. Harry, who could not move or make a sound, could only watch as Malfoy approached Dumbledore, wand drawn. The fact that Harry was finally being proved right – that Malfoy _had _been up to something – was little consolation to him now.

Harry wondered if Malfoy would notice there were two brooms up here and wonder why. But the pale boy appeared to have only enough focus for the old man in front of him.

Sounds of fighting drifted up the stairs to them. "You are not alone, Draco?" Dumbledore asked.

"I've let Death Eaters into your precious school!" Malfoy snarled.

"Have you?" Dumbledore asked calmly. "I would have thought that impossible. Would you honor an old man who is about to die by telling me how?"

Harry's attention was divided between the sounds of battle coming from below and Malfoy's story of the twin vanishing cabinets that formed a passage between Hogwarts and Borgin & Burke. Again, whatever satisfaction Harry might have felt that his theory about Malfoy wanting something from Borgin & Burkes being proved right was tempered by his fear that his friends were in danger below.

Malfoy was drawing his tale out, as if he could delay the inevitable if he waited long enough. Harry tried with all he had to break free of the body bind on him. It would be so easy to hit Malfoy with a curse. Then he could help Dumbledore and go to his friends. But try as he might, he couldn't do so much as blink.

Dumbledore had now led Malfoy into a discussion of his previous reckless attempts on the Headmaster's life, as though Dumbledore, too, was trying to delay as long as possible. All the while, Harry could see Dumbledore visibly weakening.

Finally, talking ceased for a moment. "Well, Draco, if you're going to do this, you should act. Time is running short."

Harry could see Malfoy's hand trembling and his wand quivering. Dumbledore saw it, too.

"We can help you, Draco," the old man offered kindly.

"You can't help me!" Malfoy spit. "If I don't do this, he'll kill me. He'll kill my whole family!"

Four people suddenly burst out onto the rooftop with them. Malfoy's wand, which had been lowering, raised up once again, pointing straight at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore seemed to know some of their uninvited guests and spoke to them by name. They were impatient to see Dumbledore die, but seemed insistent that Malfoy should perform the deed. Before push came to shove, someone else joined the party.

Harry found that although the remainder of his body was frozen solid, his blood could move. He felt it coursing, hot and fast, through his veins – Snape.

Snape surveyed the scene quickly, black eyes flitting to each one of his "brothers", then to Dumbledore, then around the tower, as though he knew Harry must be here somewhere, concealed. _He _hadn't missed the presence of two broomsticks.

Dumbledore spoke first. "Severus," he said.

Snape's eyes went to the Headmaster, his face impassive. Dumbledore's voice had a note of pleading that wrenched at Harry's heart and ratcheted his fear up even more. Adrenalin pushed the hatred up as well – Dumbledore was pleading with that bastard Snape for his life!

Snape shouldered Malfoy aside roughly and stood staring at Dumbledore.

"Severus, please," Dumbledore said, the note of pleading more subdued but still there.

Snape raised his wand.

"No!" Harry screamed inside his own mind.

"Avada kedavra!" Snape hissed. A green burst of light shot from Snape's wand and struck Dumbledore in the chest, throwing the old man up into the air, where his body hung, as though suspended, before dropping out of sight on the other side of the ramparts.

A great cheer went up from the four Death Eaters, and they rushed to the edge of the tower to look over the side. Malfoy stood staring at the spot where Dumbledore had disappeared.

As soon as the curse struck Dumbledore, Harry dropped to the ground as though all of the bones in his body had liquefied. Though his body wasn't cooperating, his brain was in hyper-drive, and he knew immediately that the body bind had lifted because Dumbledore was dead. Because Snape had killed him.

"You bastard!" Harry snarled, throwing off his cloak, forgetting that he was outnumbered six to one in his desire for revenge. He reached for his wand, but his arms felt as though he'd fallen asleep on them – they were tingling and hard to control. Before he could more than wrestle the wand out of his pocket, Snape yelled, "Expelliarmus!", and Harry's wand flew into the hated Professor's hand.

Harry's legs were cooperating no better than his arms and felt as though they wouldn't hold his weight, and he lay panting on the floor. "You bastard! How could you?! He trusted you!"

"What have we here?" Greyback said gleefully as the four Death Eaters gathered around. "Well done, Snape! You've captured Potter!"

Greyback raised his wand.

"No!" Snape barked. "He belongs to the Dark Lord."

"Yeah, well, the Dark Lord hasn't been all that successful at getting rid of the little punk, has he?" Greyback answered. "Not much to look at, is he?" he sneered down at Harry. "I think Master will be very pleased if I bring him Potter's body."

"No!" Snape repeated.

"Come on, Snape! You wouldn't be wanting all the glory for yourself, now would you?"

Greyback pointed his wand between Harry's eyes. "Avada . . ."

Before he could get the second word out, Snape turned on him. "Incarcerous!"

Greyback found himself wrapped from head to foot in chains that had shot out of Snape's wand. Unable to balance himself, he toppled over.

"Anyone else wish to disobey the Dark Lord's wishes?" Snape asked menacingly, turning on the rest of them.

They looked at Snape warily, then down at Harry, unable to contain their glee at the capture of their Master's most hated enemy.

Alecta Carrow raised her wand, intending to incapacitate Harry. Before she could get the words out, Snape had stupefied her. The two remaining Death Eaters now rounded suspiciously on Snape. Amycus Carrow especially was eyeing Snape with a baleful expression. Snape took care of him first, as the greater threat, then turned his wand on the fourth Death Eater before the man could really process what was going on. "Idiots," Snape muttered. He looked up for Draco, uncertain what he should do about the boy, but he saw only the back of Draco's robe as he fled down the stairs.

Snape turned to Harry, who was finally getting his legs to listen to his brain and was struggling to his feet. He turned to Snape, more than ready to try to kill the older man with his bare hands if need be.

"Potter . . ." Snape started.

"Give me my wand," Harry spit through clenched teeth.

"In a moment. You must listen. We don't have a lot of time."

"You think I'm going to listen to you? After what you've done? You killed the Headmaster! You killed my parents!"

Snape flinched at that accusation, but he didn't have time to figure out how Harry had come into possession of this knowledge. "What I've _done_ is to save your miserable life yet again!"

"You bastard!" Harry said, advancing on Snape with unsteady legs.

Snape took a step toward Harry, then pushed him up against the wall, pinning him there with an arm to his throat. "You will listen to me!" he ordered. "Dumbledore was dying. You've seen his hand. He was cursed, many months ago. He knew Malfoy was planning to kill him at the Dark Lord's request, and he made me promise that I . . . that I would do it when the time came. He _planned _it this way! Now there is work to be done, and you must put aside your anger and your grief. Malfoy has gotten away. Miss Talmadge is not safe here. I must get her away."

"The vanishing cabinet!" Harry said, forcing his mind to process this horrible night in compartments. "He'll let more of them into the school! It must be destroyed!"

Snape had not known that the Death Eaters had entered the school through a vanishing cabinet, but he understood immediately what Harry meant, and he was relieved to see that the boy was being rational. He released Harry and took a step back. "If I give you your wand, can I trust you not to hex me?"

Harry stared up at Snape. He was still so angry, about the revelation that Snape had relayed the prophecy to Voldemort, about what he'd seen Snape do here tonight – but he couldn't deny that Snape had defended him against the four Death Eaters, that he would likely be dead if Snape hadn't intervened. He was so confused, but he knew he had to act. And something else occurred to him.

"Everyone thinks the baby is mine."

"Precisely," Snape said, surprised that Harry had made that leap. "Though she'd be in no better situation if the truth was known. She's in danger."

"We have to get her out of here!"

"Yes, Mr. Potter. Sooner, rather than later." Snape handed Harry his wand, then waited warily to see what Harry would do with it.

"You go to Tevis," Harry suggested. "I'll go to the Room of Requirement and destroy the vanishing cabinet."

Snape didn't like leaving Harry on his own. If Malfoy had gone to allow more Death Eaters entry into the school, Harry could be walking into a hornet's nest. On the other hand, if Malfoy had gone straight to Tevis, thinking to use her as a hostage in order to capture Harry, she and her baby could already be in his hands. They must split up.

"Use your cloak," Snape instructed. "And when you're finished, meet me in Miss Talmadge's room. We will wait for you there."

Harry nodded his understanding and moved to go.

"Potter," Snape said, stopping him. "Be careful."

Harry nodded again. "Yeah, you, too," he said grudgingly.

To be continued . . .


	3. Chapter 3

**Worth Waiting For**

by warviben

**Summary**: A student new to Hogwarts will change Snape's and Harry's lives in ways they could never have imagined.

**Warnings**: This fic contains detailed descriptions of sexual encounters. Some of them are hetero- and some are male/male/female. If this type of thing is not for you, I suggest you stop reading now.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters (well, most of them anyway). If you're reading this, you likely know that.

_From Chapter 2:_

"_You go to Tevis," Harry suggested. "I'll go to the Room of Requirement and destroy the vanishing cabinet."_

_Snape didn't like leaving Harry on his own. If Malfoy had gone to allow more Death Eaters entry into the school, Harry could be walking into a hornet's nest. On the other hand, if Malfoy had gone straight to Tevis, thinking to use her as a hostage in order to capture Harry, she and her baby could already be in his hands. They must split up._

"_Use your cloak," Snape instructed. "And when you're finished, meet me in Miss Talmadge's room. We will wait for you there."_

_Harry nodded his understanding and moved to go._

"_Potter," Snape said, stopping him. "Be careful."_

_Harry nodded again. "Yeah, you, too," he said grudgingly._

Chapter 3

Snape pounded on Tevis' door. Had he been a praying man, he surely would have been sending entreaties heavenward that he'd find Tevis in her room, alone and unharmed. His anxiety increased with every moment that she didn't answer the door, and he pounded on it again.

Finally, the door swung open, and a sleepy Tevis stood looking at him, dressed in soft blue pajamas bedecked with cavorting sheep. "Professor? What's going on?"

Snape stepped quickly into her room, pulling her with him as he did, and shut the door. He had to fight the urge to hold her, so relieved that she was here and safe.

"We must leave here. Tonight. Now."

"What? Why? What's going on?"

"Death Eaters have entered the castle. Dumbledore is dead. An attempt was made on Potter's life."

Tevis covered her mouth with one hand. "The Headmaster is . . . dead?"

"Yes."

"And Harry?"

"Potter is fine," he said, hoping that was still true. "He is meeting us here shortly. You should pack."

"But why? Why do we have to go?"

"Draco Malfoy let Death Eaters into the school. He has escaped. You are not safe here. Rumor has it that Potter is the father of your child. They may target you to get to him."

"But he's not . . ." She looked at him, her eyes wide.

"I know," he said softly. "But even if the truth was known, you would be in just as much danger. This is not the time or the place to go into all of this. We must be ready to go when Potter returns. You're going to have to trust me."

She looked at him for a moment, but only for a moment. She _did _trust him, and she began packing her clothes into her trunk.

Where would they go? Snape wondered as he watched her pack. He couldn't go home – the Dark Lord knew of his home in Spinner's End, and that was the first place they'd look for him once word of his treachery reached Voldemort's ears. He was still pondering this dilemma when Tevis finished packing, and he was no closer to a solution when Harry finally showed up many minutes later.

"Malfoy wasn't in the Room of Requirement," he informed Snape. "I've destroyed the cabinet. I've also been to see Professor McGonagall. I've told her what happened." At Snape's questioning look, he added, "Everything. Everything I know anyway," he amended. "I've told her we planned to take Tevis away, and she thought it was a good idea for both our sakes as well as hers. She'll alert the Order, but she'll not tell anyone where we've gone."

"I've yet to figure out where we can go that will be safe," Snape confessed.

"Well, Professor McGonagall had a thought there, as well. She suggested the house in Godric's Hollow."

The two men shared a look that Tevis couldn't interpret. There was a lot about this night that she couldn't comprehend.

"The house is spelled to keep Muggles out," Harry said. "There are other protections as well, the Professor said, but she wasn't aware of all of them. She suggested that we not use magic at all until that can be sorted. She said she would join us there tomorrow morning and help us straighten it out."

"You're coming with us?" Snape asked.

Harry nodded. "For a while anyway."

"Are there things that you need to pack?"

Harry withdrew his miniaturized trunk from his pocket and turned to demonstrate the rucksack on his back. "I've already packed."

Snape raised an eyebrow, impressed. "There are some things I need as well. I'll need twenty minutes. Will you stay here with Miss Talmadge?"

"Of course. Oh, and here." Harry reached into the inner pocket of his robe and withdrew the invisibility cloak. "Word is starting to spread – I don't know how. You may need this."

"Thank you," he said, accepting the offering gratefully. He thought he knew how word had spread – Malfoy. "Let no one in until I return."

"Actually, I asked Ron and Hermione to come here. They need to know the truth of what happened. Or as much of the truth as I know," he said pointedly.

Snape nodded his agreement. "Twenty minutes." With a quick look at Tevis, he left them.

"_What _is going on?" Tevis asked, turning on Harry, hands on her hips, looking as though she would brook nothing less than the truth. So he gave it to her.

When Snape returned, he found Granger and Weasley, the former in tears, still in Tevis' room. He'd packed his belongings, including whatever potion ingredients he thought he might need, and he'd visited the kitchen for some food to take with them. He'd stayed under the invisibility cloak, and he was glad that he'd done so when he passed groups of students agitatedly discussing Dumbledore's death and Snape's role in it. He could tell from one glance at Tevis that Harry had filled her in.

"It is time to go," he announced. They'd already been here much longer than he thought prudent.

"But where will you go?" Hermione asked, swiping at the tears on her cheeks.

"We're going to my parents' house, in Godric's Hollow," Harry said, trusting his friends completely. "At least for now. I'll let you know if we move from there. But you can't tell anyone. No one can know where Tevis has gone."

Hermione looked extremely disappointed, as though Harry had betrayed her. "But you told me the baby wasn't yours. I asked you, and you specifically denied it!"

"She's not," Harry said.

"Then why . . .?"

"The child is mine," Snape announced, then ignored the shocked expressions on Hermione and Ron's faces. He offered a hand to Tevis and helped her up. "Are you ready to go?"

Looking a little shell-shocked herself, Tevis nodded.

"We've got to go," Harry said. "I'll be in touch as soon as I can."

"Professor, you should wear the cloak," Hermione advised shyly. "Rumors are flying about . . . about what happened. You may not make it out of here otherwise."

Harry agreed. "She's right."

"And we'll escort you out. Can't hurt to have two extra wands, right?" Ron added.

Snape looked at Weasley and Granger, surprise obvious on his face. Maybe he'd underestimated them. Potter had good friends.

They left Tevis' room and joined the throngs of students milling about in the hallways. They walked abreast, forming a moving blockade, behind which Snape walked under the cloak. He fumed about the necessity of hiding, but knew Granger was probably right – if the mood of the students was any indication, they'd rip him to shreds if they could get their hands on him now.

It was slow going. Everyone wanted to talk to Harry about what had happened. It was impossible to tell if the rumors making their way through the castle included the fact that Harry had witnessed Dumbledore's demise, but Harry had no interest in stopping to discuss it in any event. Dumbledore was dead – he hadn't processed that yet, and if he tried to do so now, he'd be useless to Tevis. And he wasn't entirely sure yet that he wasn't going to kill Snape once he'd had a chance to reflect on it.

Once they left the castle, foot traffic decreased significantly, and they made better time. When they finally passed through the gates, after Snape had unspelled them, Snape pulled the cloak off. Hermione pulled Harry into a warm hug, then embraced Tevis. Surprising everyone, she favored Snape with a quick hug as well. "You all take care of yourselves," she said, her voice hitching.

"Yeah, mate," added Ron. "Let us know if there's anything we can do."'

"Thanks, guys," Harry said. "I hope to see you soon."

Ron and Hermione returned to the grounds, and Snape spelled the gates shut.

"Ready?" Snape asked.

"Have you been there, Professor?" Harry asked. He'd never been and had no idea how to apparate there.

"Once," Snape said.

Harry narrowed his eyes suspiciously, wondering if Snape had been present when Voldemort had killed his parents.

"No, Potter. Not that night," Snape said, reading Harry's mind.

Harry supposed he'd have to take Snape's word for that at the moment.

Snape took hold of Tevis' arm and held his other arm out to Harry. Reluctant to take the proffered arm for many reasons, Harry hesitated, but then reached out to take Snape's arm, and they were whisked away.

They appeared before a rusty gate. No one spoke as they stood staring at the ruined cottage before them. It was a two-story building, but the right side of the top floor was missing. Harry's stomach clenched as the realization that this was where his parents had died, where he had nearly died as well, settled over him, like a wet wool blanket.

He cleared his throat, hoping his voice wouldn't sound as wobbly as his knees felt. "We should get inside."

He reached out and put his hand on the gate. Suddenly, a sign rose up out of the tall grass beyond it. Silently they read:

_On this spot, on the night of 31 October 1981_

_Lily and James Potter lost their lives._

_Their son, Harry, remains the only wizard_

_ever to have survived the killing curse._

_This house, invisible to Muggles, has been left_

_in its ruined state as a monument to the Potters_

_and as a reminder of the violence_

_that tore apart their family._

"Oh, Harry," Tevis whispered. She'd known his story, but this proof was so . . . tangible.

Around these words, handwritten messages appeared, messages which Harry rather thought he might like to read. But not tonight.

Now with a large lump in his throat, Harry pushed the gate open, no longer trusting himself to speak.

Harry led the way up the path to the front door. He wanted to tell them that Professor McGonagall had assured him that the first floor of the house was still structurally sound, but he couldn't do it. So he simply opened the door and stepped inside.

"Are there no spells to keep people out?" Tevis asked, surprised they'd been able to walk right in.

Harry took a deep breath and had to swallow twice before he could answer. "They let _me_ in," he said simply.

The front door opened into a sitting room, and Harry flipped the switch beside the door. Light flooded the room.

"Electricity?" Tevis asked.

"It's a mixed village," Harry informed her. "Half Muggle, half wizard."

Snape was strangely quiet. He, too, had been hit by the realization that Lily Potter had died here, because of the information he'd given to Voldemort. Potter must have realized this, too, or the connection would soon occur to him. There was something they needed to get out of the way.

"I'm beat," Tevis said, stretching languidly.

"There's probably a bedroom through one of these doors," Harry said, moving in that direction.

"Wait," Snape said, finally speaking. "There's something that we must do. Now. It cannot wait until the morning. I know that you are tired, that we have all had a busy and emotional night, but this is important."

He removed his trunk from his pocket and enlarged it.

"Professor McGonagall said no magic!" Harry protested.

"It can't be helped," Snape said simply. He opened the trunk and removed Dumbledore's pensieve. After setting it on the table, he opened a large bottle of clear liquid and emptied the contents into the pensieve. He then returned to his trunk and came out with several vials which Harry knew contained memories.

"We have to do this now?" Harry asked wearily. His emotions were already overloaded. He wasn't sure he could handle anything else today.

"Yes. Miss Talmadge deserves to know what she has gotten herself into. I deserve to sleep soundly without fear that you will hex me. And you, Potter, deserve to know the truth. Finally. Do you know what this is, Miss Talmadge?"

"Tevis," she corrected, shaking her head.

"No, it's a pensieve." Snape's joke earned him two very small and tired grins. "It will allow you and Mr. Potter to view my memories," he said, indicating the vials filled with silvery liquid smoke. Snape removed one vial and poured it into the pensieve.

"Watch me," Harry instructed. He leaned forward and placed his face into the pensieve, then felt himself falling. His feet hit the ground, and he waited for Tevis to land beside him. Together they watched as Snape and Lily, at nine years of age, met and Lily learned what she was, to the utter disapproval of her older sister. That scene transformed into another, where Lily and Snape sat together, obviously now friends, and talked about magic, until Petunia interrupted them.

They found themselves back in Godric's Hollow, seated side by side on the old sofa, and neither of them spoke.

"You may ask questions at any time," Snape offered.

"That was you," Tevis said. "But who were the girls?"

Snape looked at Harry, who said, "The younger one was my mother. The older was her sister, Petunia. You knew my mother? Before school?"

"Yes. She was my friend."

Harry knew from the way the young Snape had been looking at Lily that he'd wanted to be more than just her friend, even back then.

"Ready to go on?" Snape asked when neither of them spoke further. They both nodded their agreement.

This time, Harry let Tevis go first. Together they watched Lily saying goodbye to her family on Platform 9 3/4 while Snape watched; Lily and Snape running into James Potter and Sirius Black on the train; and the sorting ceremony which separated Lily and Snape into different houses.

When they returned to the living room, Harry had no questions. He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "One of the boys on the train, the one with the shorter hair . . . that was my father," he said for Tevis' benefit. He'd tried to tell her in the pensieve, but she'd shushed him.

"I could see the resemblance," Tevis said.

They next witnessed the rift beginning to grow between Snape and Lily over the path Snape had begun to walk. Harry cringed when he recognized the scene he'd witnessed before: his father and his friends bullying Snape. And he felt a certain amount of unexpected sympathy for the abjectly pathetic Snape unsuccessfully apologizing to his mother for calling her the unforgivable. And again he had no questions when it ended. He supposed tomorrow he'd have hundreds of questions, and he hoped this wasn't the only chance he was going to get to ask them, but for now, it was just too much on top of everything else.

But it wasn't over yet. They both watched, horrified, as Snape attended Death Eater meetings at which torture and humiliation were the norm; as Snape observed or directly participated in atrocities ordered by the Dark Lord; as some of this same abuse was directed at Snape. They next watched as Snape confessed to Dumbledore what he'd done and then as Dumbledore requested penance from a distraught Snape.

They witnessed Snape's complaints to Dumbledore about Harry's lack of ability and character and observed as the two men conversed at the Yule Ball about the growing strength of the Dark Lord.

And finally, they watched together as Snape tended to Dumbledore's injured hand, gave the impossible promise, and complained about the Headmaster's lack of trust in him.

And now Harry had questions.

"How, exactly, did he hurt his hand?"

"I don't know. What he told me you have now seen. He refused to discuss it any further."

"And what did he tell you when you went to his office that night?"

Snape hesitated. "This . . . is going to be difficult to watch. It will change the way you view your past and your future. But it is, at last, the truth. And I cannot deny you the truth any longer. You know what I am, what I have done. I have urged Dumbledore for years to reveal all that he knew to you, but the meddling old fool insisted on doing things his way. You do not have to do this, now or ever, Potter. The choice is yours."

How could he not? "I need to. I want the truth."

Snape added the memory to the pensieve, then put a hand on Tevis' arm. "This one is for Potter only."

Harry dove in. And learned, at last, the horrific truth – he was meant to sacrifice himself to the greater good. This had been Dumbledore's plan since the day Harry had last been in this house. How could he not have seen? How could he have been naive enough to think that Dumbledore had been trying to keep him alive out of affection?

"I'm sorry you had to witness that," Snape said to Tevis as they waited for Harry to return. "But I wanted you to see, to know what I am capable of."

Tevis didn't think she could speak, so she reached over and took Snape's hand and squeezed it gently.

Harry sat stunned on the couch, overloaded with information and emotion. He felt as though everything he had known about himself and his life had been thrown into a blender and someone had pulsed it for five seconds.

Snape spoke to Tevis. "I have one more memory for you to watch, alone. It is not pleasant. I am not making excuses, but I hope that it will help to explain what happened . . . that night. If you're willing."

Tevis nodded, and Snape exchanged the memories, keeping a wary eye on Harry. After Tevis had submerged herself, he asked, "Are you all right?"

"No," Harry said bleakly. It was too much to process. And as angry and betrayed as he felt by Dumbledore, the glaring fact was that the man was gone. "He's dead," Harry whispered, and he couldn't stop the tears from streaming from his eyes or his heart from breaking.

Snape reached up and put a large hand on the back of Harry's head and pulled his head down to rest on Snape's shoulder. Harry allowed the contact, his anger at Snape burned away by the truth.

They were still sitting this way when Tevis returned. She stared at Snape. "Because you were last?" she asked, incredulous.

"Yes."

"But someone is _always _last."

"Yes," he agreed.

Tevis shuddered at the horror of this evil, then seemed to notice Harry's distress. She turned large, concerned eyes on Snape. Snape held a finger to his lips, indicating that she should not speak.

Snape stroked the back of Harry's head. "We should get some sleep. It has been a very long day."

Harry sat up, removed his glasses, and wiped at his eyes. He cleared his throat and said, "You two take the bedroom. I'll sleep here on the sofa."

"I hardly think it appropriate . . ." Snape began, but Harry stopped him.

"Let's not pretend like the two of you have never slept together, all right? Look, someone's got to share the bed. That'll either be you and her, you and me, or me and her. I'm tired enough that I don't care."

"I promise not to attack you," Tevis said tiredly.

"Fine," Snape gave in with bad grace. There was no way he was sleeping with Potter or letting Potter share the bed with Tevis. "Will you be all right, Potter?"

"I'll be fine," Harry assured him. "You probably have questions of your own. Tomorrow I'll . . . I'll tell you anything you want to know."

They all stood up. Tevis stretched languidly, then hugged Harry. "I'm so sorry about Dumbledore."

He hugged her back, then watched them both disappear into the bedroom.

Harry had thought he'd never get to sleep, that the thoughts swirling around in his head would refuse him that peace. But as though his brain had reached the saturation point and shut down, Harry was asleep a second after he stretched out on the sofa.

"I shall sleep on top of the blankets," Snape informed Tevis in the bedroom.

Tevis pulled said blankets back and got under them. "I'm too tired to undress, so you might as well just get in here."

Reluctantly, Snape did. They lay on their sides, looking at each other, separated by at least two feet. "I'm sorry about all of this," Snape offered.

Tevis rubbed her belly. "This is my fault. I should be the one apologizing. I can't bring myself to regret it," she confessed.

"You should. You have seen what I am."

Tevis rested a hand on his cheek, and that familiar and pleasant buzzing went through him again. "What I saw was you holding Harry while he cried. _That's_ what you are."

"You cannot dismiss my past. It will not go away that easily."

"Ten years ago, I was seven, and I wanted to be a pirate. People change."

Snape huffed at her refusal to accept the truth, but he kissed the palm of her hand. "Go to sleep, you impossibly idealistic child."

Tevis patted his cheek gently once, withdrew her hand, and curled up to sleep.

#########

Snape awoke the next morning to the delicious comfort of a warm body curled up next to his. Tevis was still asleep, her back and buttocks pressed against his chest and legs. Snape shifted away from her, lest she wake and feel his morning erection. It wasn't because of her, he told himself – it was simple physiology. He'd woken this way alone countless times – it didn't mean he was attracted to her. It wasn't until he pulled away that he realized his body had been humming with the contact. He lost his erection immediately.

Tevis rolled onto her back, placing herself by his side once more, and looked at him, making him wonder if she'd been awake after all, if she'd felt . . .

"Good morning," she murmured sleepily, endearing in her muzziness. It took great self-control for Snape not to lean forward and press his lips to hers.

"Good morning," he responded, throwing back the blankets and leaping out of the bed, torn between wanting to stay here with her forever and wanting to be as far from temptation as possible. There was also a part of him that was more than a little worried about Potter – the boy had been through a lot yesterday. An adverse reaction to all that stress was not out of the question.

Relief flooded through him when he opened the bedroom door and immediately saw and heard Potter. Harry was still asleep on the sofa, his mouth hanging open, snoring. "Charming," Snape noted, but there was a small note of affection in his voice which he hadn't intended.

Snape found his way to the loo and relieved himself. He then found the kitchen and set out the things he'd brought with him yesterday – bread, jam, tea. He'd have to speak with Minerva when she came about groceries.

He heard Tevis moving around in the bathroom, then the sound of water running in the shower. Well, that was good – they could bathe. As the water boiled over the fire he'd made by hand in the kitchen hearth, Snape contemplated their situation. They were stuck here for the foreseeable future. Too many people wanted him dead. Until the situation with Voldemort was resolved, they were safer here, or some place like here, protected, where those who would wish Miss Talmadge and her child harm because of the child's father were unable to find them. He recognized the danger to himself, but hated hiding away and wouldn't were it not for others who needed his protection. He suspected Harry would feel the same way and wondered if the boy would insist on returning to school.

Potter. How would he deal with all he had learned and experienced last night? Snape got up from the table and went out into the living room again. Potter hadn't moved and seemed to be sleeping the sleep of the damned, which Snape guessed he probably was. Dumbledore's betrayal had to hurt, as had the knowledge that Snape was responsible for the Dark Lord learning of the prophecy, which in turn had led to his parents' deaths, here in this very house.

He could hear Tevis moving about in the bedroom, and he knocked softly on the door before pushing it open. He stopped short when he saw Tevis, her hair wet, wrapped in a towel. She was standing before her miniaturized trunk, wand in hand. Snape shut the door quickly.

"What are you doing?" he asked, his eyes landing everywhere in the room but on her, with all that exposed skin.

"Trying to decide whether I should put on my clothes from last night or whether I should re-size my trunk and put on clean clothes. You risked magic last night, so I was hoping it was okay to do it again."

"Here, let me," he offered. He stood beside her and enlarged her trunk. Having seen no adverse reaction to this particular bit of magic last night, he assumed it was safe enough.

"Thank you," she said, but she made no move to remove clothing and get dressed. "I was going to tell you," she said softly, rubbing her distended belly. "When school ended. I wasn't sure you'd even remember that we'd . . . been together, but I was going to tell you because I thought you deserved to know. I just didn't want to do it before term ended and risk you losing your job."

"And what would you have done had I refuted all responsibility?"

"I'm not sure," she said honestly. "Harry said he'd take care of us. But I don't really need anyone to take care of me, so please don't think you have to . . ."

Snape interrupted her by placing his hands on her shoulders and turning her to face him. "Miss Talmadge, you are carrying my child. Of that, I have no doubt. I can only apologize for what I did to you and pray that one day, you will forgive me. Whatever regret I may have about the way she was conceived . . . I assure you that she and you are my primary responsibility now. You must take seriously the threat that exists to both of you. You are in just as much danger right now as either Harry or I am."

"I understand," she assured him. She took his hand. "And there's nothing to forgive you for. I've told you that already." She put his hand to her mouth and kissed it.

The buzzing creeping up his arm from her touch threatened to overwhelm him. How did she _do_ that? He should pull his hand away, he knew, but his hand had other ideas and cupped her cheek. She leaned into his touch and closed her eyes blissfully. His other hand caressed her other cheek, and she looked up at him, her eyes issuing an challenge that her lips seemed ready to back up.

Knowing that he shouldn't, Snape bent down and brushed a kiss across her lips. She sighed at the contact, and he did it again, more firmly this time. Her lips parted, and his tongue, as independent as his hands, nudged inside her mouth. She opened wider to accept him, and the kiss deepened. Tevis' arms went around his neck, pulling his body tight against hers, and he became aware immediately that she was naked save for one somewhat thin, all-too-short cotton white bath towel.

"We should probably stop this," Snape murmured, though his lips never broke contact with hers.

"Why?" she challenged, then sucked gently on his bottom lip. "I promise you I won't get pregnant." When they'd been at school, she'd had to act circumspect around her professor so as not to get him into trouble. Here, there was no reason to hide what she felt and what she wanted.

"Miss Talmadge . . ."

"Tevis," she breathed into his mouth.

"Professor McGonagall will be here at any moment. Potter is in the next room. Breakfast is ready."

Of all the reasons to discontinue what they were doing, this last one seemed to interest her most. "Breakfast?" she repeated hopefully, finally pulling her mouth away from his.

"Yes," he confirmed, stepping back away from her, out of the immediate danger zone. "It's not much, but it's all we have for now."

Tevis shook herself, trying to rid her system of the lust she felt for this man. She bent to open her trunk, and Snape looked away quickly when the towel she was wearing rode up obscenely. Tevis didn't seem to notice or care.

"What are we going to do about food while we're here?" she asked. She was almost six months pregnant – food seemed to rule her life.

"That's one of the things we need to talk with Minerva about."

Tevis stood up, an outfit in her hands. She carelessly dropped the towel to the floor and smiled wickedly when Snape blushed and turned away quickly enough to give himself whiplash.

Tevis dressed quickly. She was really quite hungry. "I'm ready," she announced.

Harry was no longer on the sofa when they exited the bedroom. The bathroom door stood open, and it only took a moment to ascertain that he wasn't in the kitchen. Snape left Tevis in the kitchen grumbling about the lack of variety for breakfast and went back into the living room, wondering where Potter had gone, trying not to worry until he had a reason.

His eyes flitted around the room, looking for a clue to Harry's whereabouts. And there it was – a door, which last night had been sealed shut, now stood ajar.

Snape opened the door slowly to find stairs leading to the upper level. At the top of the stairs, he could see right through the roof to the bright blue sky above.

Snape carefully climbed the stairs, unsure how sound they might be. At the top, he stopped to look around. To his left, the house was intact. A door to a bedroom stood open. To his right was a different matter – the roof had been completely blown away, along with the upper half of the walls in what obviously had once been the nursery.

Walking carefully, Snape entered the nursery and found Harry sitting on the floor, staring at what used to be his own cot.

Snape studied Harry, unsure whether the young man wanted to be left alone or whether he should be left alone. He didn't look particularly distraught – he wasn't crying or shaking or even talking to himself – he was just staring. Finally deciding what Harry needed most right now was privacy, Snape turned to leave him.

He stopped when Harry spoke.

"I think it must have been right there," Harry said quietly, raising his hand and pointing it at the cot. "I think I was in the cot, and my mother was standing between me and Voldemort. I think she died right there."

Snape shivered, as though the ghost of Lily Evans Potter had just passed through him. He crouched in the doorway so that Harry could look him in the eye if he chose, and said, "Would it be of any use to you at all to know that of all of the mistakes I've made in my life, that is the one that haunts me most? And that I am more sorry than I could ever convey that my actions led to her death, and your father's death, and your being orphaned? And that right now, I would willingly let you kill me if my death would bring you any kind of . . ." He'd been about to say closure, but he hated that word. There was never any closure to be had when one lost a loved one violently and unexpectedly – some small part of the hurt always remained open. Instead, he went with, "justice."

Harry looked at him, surprised. Being in this house had made him . . . curious and melancholy and regretful for what might have been. But he didn't want Snape dead, despite what he'd done. "And then your daughter would grow up without her father. How does that help?"

"Well, it doesn't," Snape admitted. "But it seemed like an appropriate penance. Though I must say I am glad you didn't take me up on my offer."

"What would you have done if I had?" Harry asked curiously. "Would you have really let me kill you?"

Snape stood up and stretched his spine back into alignment. "I think I would have prayed for Miss Talmadge to intervene and appeal to your Gryffindor sense of honor."

The ends of Harry's mouth quirked up. "You think she would have saved you?"

"She seems to like me. Rather inexplicable, that."

"Quite," Harry agreed.

Snape extended a hand to the boy on the floor. With a small sigh, Harry took it and allowed Snape to haul him to his feet. Snape held onto his hand. "Harry, I really _am_ sorry," he said sincerely.

"I know," Harry said solemnly. "I forgive you," his eyes twinkled merrily, "Severus."

Snape let go of his hand with a feigned huff of annoyance.

The unmistakable crack of someone apparating downstairs froze both of them for a moment before they jumped to life and raced back downstairs.

Drawing their wands, they both sprinted down the stairs, nearly tripping over each other in their haste to assess whether a threat existed. They burst into the sitting room, nearly scaring Minerva McGonagall into her animagus form.

"Merciful Merlin!" she exclaimed, her hand over her heart. "Are you boys trying to kill me?!"

"Sorry, Professor," Harry said. "We heard . . . and we didn't know . . ."

Tevis poked her head out of the kitchen.

"Minerva," Snape said coolly, as though he hadn't just made a great fool of himself. "Have you news?"

"Lots," she said, recovering her normal breathing rate. "We should sit."

"Tea?" Tevis asked.

"Please," Snape affirmed with a nod.

"Magic?" Tevis asked, her question directed at Professor McGonagall.

"Yes, dear. It's safe to use magic."

"Awesome," Tevis said and returned to the kitchen.

They seated themselves around the table. Tevis brought a tray with tea things and set it in the middle of the table. "Sorry we haven't got any food to serve you, Professor. How are we going to get food while we're here?"

"We'll talk about that later," Snape said dismissively. "Minerva, tell us what happened after we left last night."

"Not much," Minerva said as Tevis sat back in her chair with a huff. How long was she supposed to survive on tea and toast? "Word spread quickly about the Headmaster's death. The school was searched for any additional Death Eaters that may have been let in. There were none. Draco Malfoy has disappeared – most likely escaped through the vanishing cabinet. Obviously, the students were highly agitated and didn't settle down until quite late. I myself have not slept." She looked it.

"Do they know . . . about . . .?" Harry looked at Snape.

"Apparently Mr. Malfoy must have spread that detail before performing his vanishing act."

Snape sighed. Betrayed by a Slytherin. Perhaps he and young Mr. Malfoy were even on the betrayal front now.

"So what about this place, Professor?" Harry asked. "Is it safe here?"

"We believe so," Minerva said. "There are preserving charms on the house, which explains why it hasn't continued to crumble, as well as Muggle-repelling charms. The doors were warded to allow entry to Harry." Somehow, Harry had sensed this when they entered last night. "That has been changed to allow all three of you, as well as myself, to enter." At Snape's questioning look, Minerva explained, "I was able to locate Albus' notes wherein he described the protections originally placed here. It was most helpful. He did them himself, you know," she said with a small sniff. "It is, as of this moment, no longer possible to apparate directly inside. Out, but not in. The apparition spot is on the back step. There are shield charms around it. It is too dangerous to connect you to the floo network. We believe a fidelius charm is also in order."

"'We'?" Snape repeated.

"I've spoken only with Alastor Moody about your situation."

"You'll be secret keeper?" Snape asked.

"I'd be honored."

"I want Ron and Hermione to know," Harry added. "I've already told them where we are in any event."

Minerva nodded. "How about you, Severus? Any one you want included?"

Snape stared at her. "The only people who don't want me dead are sitting in this room." That was a bit of an overstatement, but not much of one. "There's no one."

"We have to get the truth out there, Professor," Harry said, sitting forward earnestly.

"We've already begun. Unfortunately, without you to verify what actually happened, it's likely no one will believe the truth."

"Then I'll make a public statement," Harry offered.

"You'll do no such thing!" Snape stated firmly.

"Severus is right, Harry. You need to stay here, where you're safe. At least for now."

Harry huffed his frustration. "When's the funeral?"

"Day after tomorrow. You have to realize," Minerva said gently, "that neither of you can go. It would be too dangerous."

Harry started to protest until Snape stopped him with a look. "She's right," he said simply, then turned to look at Tevis. Harry understood immediately what he meant – they needed to stay here to protect her and the baby.

Minerva followed Snape's look, too, then turned her steely gaze on Harry. "Mr. Potter, you lied to me. Worse yet, you lied to the Headmaster."

"I'm sorry?" Harry said, surprised. He had no idea what she was talking about.

"You denied to my face that you had been involved with Miss Talmadge. Her presence here belies that statement."

Harry simply stared at her, unsure what to say, hoping that Snape or Tevis would step into the breech.

Snape looked at Harry. Apparently, when Potter had told Minerva "everything", he'd left out this one fact. "The child is mine," he said.

Shock, outrage, and disbelief all warred for dominance on Minerva's face. Shock finally won. "Severus, I never would have thought you capable of . . ."

"Of what, Minerva? Raping a student?"

Tevis jumped in here. "He didn't rape me! He was incapacitated, and _I_ took advantage of _him_!"

The ludicrousness of this suggestion sat there on the table, staring at all of them.

"Miss Talmadge, please," Snape said.

"No! She's accusing you of something awful, and I won't let someone malign you while I'm sitting here!"

Snape looked at Minerva. "I told you she belonged in your house."

"You realize this fact puts her in _more _danger than if the child belonged to Harry?"

"That thought had occurred to me."

"Well, I guess we can't worry about that now. What's done is done. We have Order business to discuss. Harry, we've all agreed – it's time you were brought in."

Harry's surprise was quickly replaced with joy. "Excellent!" he said with a large grin. And about time!

They all three turned to look at Tevis now. "What?" she asked.

"You will need to leave us," Snape informed her.

"What?! Why?!"

"We have things to discuss that are not for your ears. It is for your benefit as well as ours."

This was incredible! They'd dragged her to this demolished house, which had next to no food in it; they had no idea how long they'd be here; they weren't allowed to go outside; and now they were shutting her out of some stupid meeting. "Great, I'll just pop into London, do a little shopping," she suggested wryly.

"Miss Talmadge, you know you are not to . . ." Snape started.

"I know," she cut him off rudely, then looked to Harry, thinking she'd find some support there, but he merely shook his head.

"Fine!" She could fix one of her problems anyway. Without another word, she rose to her feet and forced herself not to stomp her feet on the way to the bedroom.

"Is she going to be a problem, Severus?" Tevis heard McGonagall ask.

"I can keep her in her place," Snape assured her.

Oh, that was just _it! _Tevis rummaged through her trunk and when she found what she was looking for, she went back through the living room, stomping this time, to the exasperated looks of the adults around the table, and into the kitchen. She then quietly opened the door into the back garden and stepped outside. Noiselessly, she disappeared.

##########

Harry yawned. He couldn't help it. He'd thought attending Order meetings would be exciting, but after an hour and a half of mind-numbingly boring details, he'd been forced to revise that opinion. He was bored, he was tired, and he was hungry. Hungry – wait a minute! What was that smell? "Do you smell that?" he asked, interrupting whatever point Professor McGonagall was making.

Snape and Minerva both stopped and sniffed the air. It smelled like – heaven. Italian heaven.

"Potter, would you go and see what Miss Talmadge is up to?" Snape asked.

Bored, Harry was more than happy to get up. He went into the kitchen and immediately spotted numerous grocery bags.

"Tevis?" he said.

Tevis turned around, a large kitchen knife clutched in her hand. "What?" she snarled.

Harry gulped. "Nothing." He retreated hastily.

"Well?" Snape asked.

"Well what?"

"What did she say?"

"I didn't ask." At Snape's look of disbelief, Harry said, "She was holding a knife! A really _big_ knife! And she looked really angry."

Snape tsked his impatience and got to his feet and went into the kitchen himself. What he saw amazed him.

Tevis, her back to him, was standing at the counter angrily chopping vegetables. A fully-formed lasagna sat on the stove top, obviously waiting to be baked. The heavenly smell came from the pot on top of the cooker in which the pasta sauce had been simmered. Grocery bags, at least ten of them, sat on the counter and on the floor, waiting for someone to find a place for their contents.

"Miss Talmadge," he growled, fighting the anger that wanted to explode out of him at her disobedience.

"What?" she growled back, bringing the knife down with a _whack_.

"You . . . left?"

"Obviously."

"After I expressly told you not to?"

"I don't believe you have the authority to do that. You're no longer my professor. And you're not my father."

"There's a reason that we're here. There are people who want to kill me. And others who want to kill Potter. Those same people wouldn't hesitate to use you to get to me or him. I thought you understood how serious this is."

"What I understand is that we're going to be here who knows how long, and I was the only one interested in how we're going to eat to survive. Maybe that's because I'm the only one who's pregnant, but regular sustenance seems kind of important to me. No one wanted to talk about it. So I took care of it."

"How?"

"I disapparated to the bank." They had deposited the life insurance proceeds from her father's policy into Gringott's before returning to Hogwarts on the day of the funeral. "I withdrew money. I went to a Muggle grocery store and bought this stuff. I went behind the store where no one could see me, shrunk everything down, and came back here. No one saw me."

"Why did we not hear you leave?"

Tevis sighed. She had hoped not to have to reveal this particular little secret. "I can apparate noiselessly."

"You . . . what?" Snape was amazed. He knew very few people with this ability. He himself couldn't do it.

"You heard me."

It was Snape's turn to sigh. She could leave at any time, and he'd never know. How could he ever dare take his eyes off her now? "You took a huge risk," he said more quietly, some of his anger disappearing in the face of the knowledge that she'd obviously returned unharmed. But he had to make her understand! And he now understood that just telling her wasn't going to do it. She was much too much like Potter in that way apparently.

He came to stand behind her and put both hands on her shoulders. She tensed for a moment and stopped chopping, then dropped her shoulders with a sigh.

"Please don't do it again, Miss Talmadge," Snape requested softly. "I should hate . . . I do not want to lose you. I will see to your needs, and those of our baby. I guarantee you that."

Tevis leaned back against him, more to see what he'd do in return than for any other reason. She was pleasantly surprised when he didn't back away, as she'd expected he would, but instead placed his hands on her belly and rested his chin on top of her head. Both bodies hummed with the contact. "Please," he whispered.

She turned in his arms so that they were face to face – well, face to chest really. He was so earnest in his attempts to convince her and looked so cute and serious. She knew he wouldn't resist now and risk alienating her, and she reached up on tiptoes and kissed him softly on the lips. What a little manipulator she was! "All right," she agreed softly. "I won't do it again."

"Thank you," he said sincerely. "I must get back." He stepped away from her.

"There are sandwiches for lunch. Everyone must be starving. Invite Professor McGonagall to stay. I'll have it ready in a few minutes."

"Why don't I send Potter in to help? You've been on your feet all day."

Tevis shrugged. "I'm okay."

But moments later, Harry appeared at her side, and Tevis put him to work making sandwiches.

Professor McGonagall did stay for lunch, but she left immediately after, citing the need for sleep. She did look extremely fatigued when she disapparated from the back step.

"I'll clean up," Snape offered, waving a hand at Tevis to indicate she should keep her seat. "Potter, as soon as I'm finished, we'll talk."

At Harry's questioning look, Snape explained, "You said you'd answer all of my questions. A truth for a truth."

"I said that?" Harry asked, looking a little uncomfortable at the notion.

"You did," Tevis confirmed.

"Oh," Harry conceded, looking a little ill.

After Snape had magically cleaned the luncheon dishes and Harry and Tevis had stowed away all of her purchases, they reconvened in the sitting room.

"Ask away," Harry said with resignation.

Snape had been thinking about this. There was one thing he wanted to know above all others. "How did you manage to rescue Black from the dementors?"

Harry relaxed a little. _This_ is what he wanted to know? "Did you know that Hermione had a time turner that year?"

"Yes." All of her teachers had been told. It would have been impossible for them not to notice something odd (more odd than usual) about the girl's activities.

"We used it to go back in time. We rescued Buckbeak from the executioner, then flew him up to the tower and freed Sirius. He got away on Buckbeak."

"Hmmph!" Snape said. He should have guessed it had something to do with the time turner. He'd never quite gotten over the fact that Black had once again escaped punishment – he was angry to this day.

Harry could tell. "He was _innocent_!" he hissed. "He didn't belong in jail!"

"Hmph!" Snape said again, but he let it go. "How did you learn that the Sorcerer's Stone was hidden in the school your first year?"

"It was a bunch of things," Harry said, remembering. "Hagrid took a tiny package out of a vault at Gringott's. Wouldn't tell me what it was – top secret, he said. We met Fluffy by mistake and realized he was probably guarding the package. Hagrid let slip the name Nicholas Flamel, and once we figured out who he was, it was obvious why Fluffy was necessary. Fucking dog," Harry said, shivering at the memory of the multi-headed beast.

"Quite," Snape agreed, his leg twinging in memory of his own encounter with the mutt.

"We thought _you _were trying to steal it," Harry confessed.

"You _were_ obvious about that," Snape said. He'd known the little twerp and his friends suspected him – in fact, he'd encouraged it, in an attempt to keep them away from the truth. It hadn't worked. Nothing ever did when it came to Potter.

"Chamber of Secrets," Snape said, moving on. "How did you get past my potions problem?"

"Wasn't me. Hermione did that."

That wasn't surprising. "Did you steal the gillyweed from my store room?"

"That was Dobby. But Crouch a/k/a Moody set him up."

Snape thought. What else did he want to know? Besides the obvious, which he planned to save for last. He suspected Potter wouldn't be this forthcoming once they reached that topic.

"What did Umbridge do to you during detention?" He'd heard rumors, but since none of his Slytherins had had to serve a detention with her, he hadn't taken it upon himself to investigate.

Harry sighed and looked away, absently rubbing the back of his right hand. " Is that important now?"

"I'm . . . curious."

"She has a special quill. Didn't require any ink. When you wrote on the parchment, the words were carved into the back of your hand." Harry made a fist of his hand and showed it to Snape. With the skin stretched taut, "I will not tell lies" was still visible, white letters scarred into his pale skin. "It didn't bleed until you'd done several lines, and after the first night, it went away completely. After a week of detention, it was more or less permanent."

Snape was horrified. He'd had no idea the evil bitch had been that sadistic. "Why didn't you say something, report this to someone?"

Harry remembered his friends urging him to go to Dumbledore. And he remembered how he'd felt shunned by Dumbledore then and was angrily reluctant to approach the Headmaster for anything. "At first, it was . . . pride, I guess. I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of knowing she'd hurt me. And I thought Dumbledore had more important things to deal with." More important than me. "And then he was gone, and there was no one left who could have stopped her."

"We would have found a way," Snape said quietly, with conviction.

"But you didn't," Harry said softy, unable to keep the note of accusation out of his voice. "Everyone knew something was going on, but no one did a damn thing to stop it."

Snape knew he was right, and he felt more than a small amount of guilt.

"Anything else?" Harry asked.

"Yes. What have you done with my book?"

"Your book? What book?"

"My potions text."

"That was yours?" Harry asked, astounded.

"Is that so hard to believe?"

"No. Not now that I think about it. It makes perfect sense."

"So where is it? I would dearly like to have it back."

"I hid it. In the Room of Requirement."

"Why?"

"You asked for all my books after I . . . after that spell with Malfoy. I didn't want to give it back. How long have you known I had it?"

"I suspected when Slughorn boasted in the staff room of your proficiency in potions. Given what I know of your . . . shall we say _lack of aptitude_ in that subject area, I was suspicious. Then, after what happened with Malfoy, I was certain. Wherever did you get it from?"

"It was in Slughorn's cupboard. I wasn't expecting to take potions, so I didn't have a book. It was brilliant, Professor!" Harry said earnestly. "You should write your own text book. If _I_ could be good at potions, you have a real gift with the printed word. Not so much with the spoken word," he added with an impish grin.

"The Room of Requirement, you say?" Snape asked, disappointed. Wasn't much likelihood of retrieving it from there any time soon. Truth was, Snape had thought, many times, of writing his own potions textbook, and he'd thought wistfully of the notes he'd made in the potions textbook he'd had when a student and how helpful it would be. He'd believed it long gone until he began to suspect Potter had somehow put his careless hands on it, a suspicion that was confirmed when Potter had used Snape's own spell on Draco Malfoy. Somehow, he _had _to get it back!

"I get the 'half blood' part, but 'prince'?" Harry asked. "Did you have aspirations to royalty?"

"Hardly. My mother was Eileen Prince."

"Oh!' Now it made sense. "'Was'? Is she . . . gone?"

"Yes. She died when I was sixteen."

"And your dad?" Harry asked tentatively, wondering how Snape would react to this probing into his childhood.

"My father was a sadistic, selfish bastard. I have no idea where he is currently, nor do I have any desire to re-make his acquaintance. Not all of us had comfortable childhoods, Mr. Potter."

Now it was Harry's turn to raise an eyebrow at Snape. "You think that's what _I_ had?" He snorted – how wrong could someone be?

"Living with your middle class Muggle relatives was not comfortable?"

Harry shifted uncomfortably. "Can we talk about something else?"

"You said you'd tell me anything I wanted to know," Snape reminded him.

"Fine! It was a lot of things, but comfortable wasn't one of them."

"Did they mistreat you?" Snape asked softly.

"Well, I guess that depends on your definition of mistreat. I had a roof over my head, even if I did have to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs for the first eleven years of my life. They fed me, most days, if you consider a slice of bread and a glass of water on the days they were angry with me feeding me. And I was never allowed to sit at the table with them at mealtime. I sat in a chair in the corner until they were finished, then I got whatever scraps were left. And if you'd ever seen the size of my uncle and my cousin, you'd realize how meager those scraps usually were. And they were always cold." Harry couldn't seem to stop. Once the gate was open, the flood came pouring forth. "And they certainly taught me responsibility since it was my job to clean up the dinner dishes once I was big enough to reach the sink with a stool. Not to mention whatever other chores they gave me. And I always had clothes to wear, even if they were three sizes too big and worn through by my cousin first. Do you know that the first new article of clothing I ever had was the robes Hagrid and I bought in Diagon Alley just before I started school? There were no Christmas or birthday presents, no new toys ever. All I ever got were Dudley's broken or forgotten things, unless Dudley saw me with them and whinged for them back." Harry stopped now, breathing heavily, as though he'd just run up a flight of stairs.

"My my," Snape noted. "I seem to have opened a can of worms." Harry didn't respond – he'd already said too much.

"Did you know," Snape continued, "that Dumbledore had you watched?"

Harry nodded. "Mrs. Figg."

"Not only Mrs. Figg," Snape corrected. "Periodically, Dumbledore would send someone to watch you for a day, to see how you were getting along."

Harry had not known this. "Did you ever come?"

"Once. I drew the short straw, so to speak, and could not get out of it. I followed you and your aunt and your cousin to a nearby play park. You were probably six or seven at the time. Your cousin was an obnoxiously loud young man and disappeared immediately, but you seemed strangely reluctant to leave your aunt. This surprised me because I knew your aunt, and I would have taken the first opportunity I could to get as far away from her as possible. But you sat and played in the dirt very near her feet, though she seemed to take no notice of you at all."

"It wasn't her," Harry said quietly.

"I'm sorry?"

"It wasn't Aunt Petunia I was sticking close to. It was Mrs. Anderson. She was Tommy Anderson's mother. I don't think she liked my aunt much, but she was in the group of mothers that always sat together. I think she felt sorry for me. She wouldn't let any of the other kids pick on me, even Dudley. I stayed close to her because if I wandered away, the others would gang up on me. Led by Dudley, of course. One day, he made me eat a caterpillar. Another day, he and two other boys held me down and pulled my trousers off. I wasn't wearing anything under them, so you can image how entertaining _that _was for everyone else. I did learn that day that you can't actually die from embarrassment, much as you might like to. I also learned that Mrs. Anderson might actually think me worth a spit. She's the one who retrieved my trousers from the tree Dudley had put them in and brought them to me where I was crying in the bushes. I was five. She told Aunt Petunia what had happened, but she just dismissed it, said, 'boys will be boys' or something. But after that, I stayed close to Mrs. Anderson. Until she moved to Scotland. Worst day of my life, that."

Snape was stunned. He'd had no idea things had been that bad for Potter. He'd sensed something amiss in the way Petunia Dursley had almost completely ignored young Potter, who had been, Snape had to admit, quite a cute little tyke at that age. She'd spoken sharply to Harry when they'd prepared to leave about the dust on his clothes, but had said not a word to her own son when he'd returned covered nearly from head to foot in mud. Snape had relayed his suspicions to Dumbledore when he'd reported back, but Dumbledore had brushed them aside, Snape suspected, because he knew of Snape's dislike for Lily's sister.

"It is clear, Mr. Potter, that nearly everyone charged with providing for you has failed you miserably. I include myself in that. That you have not sought help from adults when confronted with situations beyond your ability is not a surprise. We cannot change what is in the past, but we can change what we do now."

And here they were. Snape glanced quickly at Tevis. She'd been following their back and forth and had had to bite her tongue more than once to keep from asking her own questions. Harry's last story had brought tears to her eyes. She wasn't going to like this. "Miss Talmadge, I must ask you to leave us once again."

"What?" she asked, her anger showing.

"Please. There are things we need to discuss that would be dangerous for you to hear."

"This is incredible!" she huffed. She rose to her feet and flounced into the bedroom.

Snape wanted to call after her to stay put, but he didn't. She'd said she wouldn't leave – he had to trust her. Then he cast a muffliato spell because he _didn't _trust her not to listen at the door.

"What have you been doing with Dumbledore?" he asked Harry.

Harry shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not sure I can tell you that, sir. Professor Dumbledore had his reasons for not telling you."

"He feared that I would somehow divulge that information to the Dark Lord. As I will no longer be attending Death Eater meetings, that will no longer be a consideration," Snape pointed out.

"Well, I don't want to point out the unpleasant, Professor, but you could get caught by the Death Eaters. They could get information out of you eventually. You know they could."

Snape nodded. Voldemort was certainly gifted at convincing people to give up what they most wanted to keep hidden. "The same holds true for you as well."

This was true also, Harry knew, and he nodded.

"The Dark Lord can be very persuasive."

"You can't even say his name!" Harry accused. "Even now!"

"Fine! _Voldemort _will make you spill your guts, literally and figuratively, should he lay his hands on you. Whatever you are planning will die with you."

"Ron and Hermione know."

"Great! You trust those two with . . . this, but you do not trust _me!"_

"Professor Dumbledore . . ."

"Is dead, Potter!" Snape interrupted. "He cannot help you now! But _I_ can. I am not Dumbledore, true, but I have knowledge you cannot even imagine, contacts you cannot conceive of. Is this task Dumbledore set you designed to bring about the downfall of the Da– Voldemort?"

"Yes."

"Let me help you," Snape urged. "You must see the folly of three inexperienced, vastly undertrained and woefully ignorant teenagers competing against Voldemort and his Death Eaters!" That Dumbledore would have even asked it from children such as this astounded him.

Harry _did _see this. He'd thought many times how inadequate he felt to this task, how little he knew, how impossible it all seemed. Could it hurt to have someone like Snape on their side, someone with intimate knowledge of Voldemort, someone who knew the path of Dark perhaps better than the path of Light? If only Dumbledore had told him more, hadn't placed him in this terrible position where he knew so little but was expected to do so much.

Snape watched Harry process, keeping still. The boy would either confide in him or not, based on his peculiar Gryffindor moral code, and further attempts on Snape's part to convince him were pointless.

"We're hunting horcruxes," Harry finally said. And he felt such a relief to have shared the secret.

The word froze Snape to his chair. This was worse, _much_ worse, than he'd feared.

Harry was about to ask if Snape knew what the word meant when Snape whispered, "How many are there?"

"Dumbledore thought it likely that Voldemort made seven."

"Seven?!" Snape repeated in disbelief.

"Yes. Two have already been destroyed. Tom Riddle's diary was one. I destroyed that with a basilisk tooth. The Headmaster found a second, a ring, at the home of Tom Riddle's grandfather. That's the ring that cursed his hand. He destroyed it. I guess it destroyed him as well. The night he died," (was that only yesterday?) "we'd gone to retrieve another in a cave in some Godforsaken place. Dumbledore had to drink a potion that was in a basin. It made him go slightly mad. But he'd told me to force him to drink it all, so I . . . did." Harry could feel the tears in his eyes, but he didn't care if Snape saw them or not. "In the bottom of the basin was this." Harry removed the locket from a pocket of his robe and handed it to Snape.

Snape looked at it, sitting quietly in the palm of his hand. It didn't feel like an object holding a piece of the soul of the most evil man to walk the Earth in his lifetime and perhaps the lifetimes of many of his ancestors.

"Go ahead and open it," Harry invited. He'd opened it with Ron and Hermione before leaving the castle last night. And they'd cried when they'd seen what it contained.

Cautiously, Snape opened the locket. Surprised to find a scrap of parchment inside, he looked up at Harry.

"Read it," Harry suggested.

Snape removed the piece of parchment, unfolded it, and read the missive it contained. "It's a fake?"

Harry nodded. "It is. Someone got there first. So now we know someone else has it, or had it, but we don't know who, or if it's been destroyed. And even if we had the real one, I don't know how to destroy it. Dumbledore never told me how he destroyed the ring."

"The sword!" Snape said. "Gryffindor's sword! It was on his desk the night his hand was cursed. I thought he was trying to break the curse, but perhaps that was how he destroyed the horcrux."

Harry thought that made sense. It was fitting that the sword of Gryffindor would have the power to thwart evil. "So the sword and basilisk fangs. Two things that destroy horcruxes."

"There may be others. I can do some research."

"Hermione has already looked at all the books she could find at Hogwarts."

Snape looked at him like he was a little boy. "I have access to materials that wouldn't be allowed entrance into Hogwarts."

"Oh. Right."

"Did the Headmaster know what the other horcruxes were?"

Harry shook his head. "Not for sure. He speculated that they were historically and personally significant to Voldemort. But they could be anything. Oh, and Nagini is apparently one. And me."

"So where do you start looking?"

Harry sighed. "That's one of the many things I don't know." They were both silent, contemplating the enormity of the task at hand. "No one else knows this yet, but I'm not going back to school. I'm going to look for the horcruxes. Ron and Hermione are coming with me."

Snape stared at Harry. "I've never had reason to doubt your courage." The compliment surprised Harry, and he waited for the insult that was sure to follow. It never came. "If things were different, I would ask to accompany you. But I feel I must remain here . . ."

"No. Absolutely. You've got to stay with Tevis and the baby. I don't think we'll be going anywhere until after Bill's wedding. He's getting married August first. Ron will be disowned if we leave before then. And we've got a lot of planning to do in any event. I'll be here for the next couple of months anyway. But you and Tevis should feel free to stay here as long as you like, as long as it's safe."

"Thank you, Mr. Potter. You are most generous to offer us your home."

"Well, I won't be using it now, will I?"

"No, but there's no reason why you and Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger can't use this as your 'base of operations,' so to speak, to make your plans in private this summer. And I hope that the three of you will return here, from time to time, to let us know how you are progressing and that you are . . . safe."

"Whenever we can safely do so," Harry agreed. "And definitely in mid-September – for the baby."

"I will do whatever I can to assist you, Potter. If there is anything you require, you need only ask."

"Thank you, Professor. I find just telling you about it has lightened the burden considerably."

##########

Dinner that night was a quiet affair. Tevis was still miffed at both of them for excluding her from part of their conversation, and Harry and Snape were both thinking about horcruxes. Harry did make plenty of appreciative noises about Tevis' lasagna and asked her where she'd learned to cook.

"Before coming here, Dad was stationed at Aviano Air Base in Italy. After school each day, I'd stay with a local woman until Dad picked me up. Zia Rosa taught me how to make lasagna. And bread. And other stuff."

"Wow. You've been so many cool places," Harry said enviously. "I think I'd like to travel when this is all over." Harry looked at Snape. "What about you, Professor? Any place you'd like to see some day?"

"Hmmm?" Snape asked, pushing his thoughts aside and looking at Harry.

"We were talking about the interesting places Tevis has lived. I just wondered if there was any place you've always wanted to see."

"New York City," Snape answered immediately. "I'd like to see Times Square at night and watch a play on Broadway and take a tour of Ellis Island. Have you been, Miss Talmadge?"

"No," she said stiffly. "Too many people."

Oh. He'd forgotten about her fear of crowds.

She stood up. "I'll get dessert."

"Miss Talmadge," Snape said, stopping her. "Thank you for this meal. My taste buds haven't experienced this much bliss in a very long time."

_Whatever_ would have been too rude, she guessed, so Tevis settled for a stiff "Thank you" before leaving the room.

There was no talking or touching in the communal bed that night. Tevis got into her pajamas early in the evening and went to bed well before Harry and Snape, who talked well into the night.

And there was no warm body curled up against Snape's when he awoke the next morning. In fact, there was no body in the bed with him at all. It was early – 5:00 a.m. – and he didn't need to be out of bed, but his concern for Tevis drove him out.

Potter was asleep on the sofa, snoring again, and Snape went into the kitchen, where he found Tevis curled up in a rocking chair in front of the dwindling fire, staring absently at the flames, a cup of tea in her hands.

"Is everything all right?" he asked quietly.

She looked up at him. "Everything's great. How could it be better?" The words were sarcastic, but the tone was resigned, and there was a great sadness in her eyes.

"Miss Talmadge . . ."

"Tevis," she corrected automatically with a small sigh. She uncurled and stood up. "Tea's probably still hot." And she left him to it. He watched her go, wanting to speak words of comfort, but that had never been his forte. No, it was better that she resign herself now to what had become her fate – tied through the child to a sarcastic, sometimes cruel, often ill-tempered man who could never give her what every young woman surely craved in a mate. Snape sighed and fixed himself a cup of tea.


	4. Chapter 4

**Worth Waiting For**

by warviben

**Summary**: A student new to Hogwarts will change Snape's and Harry's lives in ways they could never have imagined.

**Warnings**: This fic contains detailed descriptions of sexual encounters. Some of them are hetero- and some are male/male/female. They begin in earnest here. If this type of thing is not for you, I suggest you stop reading now.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters (well, most of them anyway). If you're reading this, you likely know that.

_From Chapter 3:_

_Potter was asleep on the sofa, snoring again, and Snape went into the kitchen, where he found Tevis curled up in a rocking chair in front of the dwindling fire, staring absently at the flames, a cup of tea in her hands._

"_Is everything all right?" he asked quietly._

_She looked up at him. "Everything's great. How could it be better?" The words were sarcastic, but the tone was resigned, and there was a great sadness in her eyes._

"_Miss Talmadge . . ."_

"_Tevis," she corrected automatically with a small sigh. She uncurled and stood up. "Tea's probably still hot." And she left him to it. He watched her go, wanting to speak words of comfort, but that had never been his forte. No, it was better that she resign herself now to what had become her fate – tied through the child to a sarcastic, sometimes cruel, often ill-tempered man who could never give her what every young woman surely craved in a mate. Snape sighed and fixed himself a cup of tea._

Chapter 4

Tevis was exploring upstairs after lunch, with Harry's permission, when Minerva McGonagall returned, as Snape had asked her to do.

"Have you eaten, Minerva?" Snape inquired.

"Yes, Severus, thank you. I've brought you the license application. You know the rules and how . . . how the application becomes a legally sealed contract?"

Snape look uncomfortable. "I am aware of the requirements, yes."

"You and Miss Talmadge must both sign before two witnesses, whom I assume to be myself and Harry?" Snape nodded. "Well, I don't wish to rush you, but I have many details to attend to for the service tomorrow, so if we could get this taken care of . . ."

"Certainly," Snape agreed. He crossed to the door at the bottom of the stairs and opened it. "Miss Talmadge!" he called up. "Would you come down here, please?"

"What's going on?" Harry asked. He picked up the parchment Professor McGonagall had left on the table. Application for Immediate Marriage License. "You asked Tevis to marry you?" Harry asked. She hadn't told him.

"Not exactly," Snape said, every feature of his face and body tense.

Not exactly? "Does she know about this?" Harry pressed.

"She will," Snape said as Tevis entered the room.

The younger woman smiled at the older. "Hello, Professor. I didn't realize you were here."

"I've only just arrived. How are you, my dear?"

"I'm fine. Would you like a cup of tea?"

"No, thank you. I can only stay for a moment."

"Miss Talmadge, there is something I need you to sign," Snape said, extending a quill toward her. When she took it, he indicated the document she was to sign.

Tevis picked it up, read the title, and turned to stare at Snape. "What is this?"

"It's exactly what it says," Snape explained. "You're carrying my child. If something were to happen to me, my possessions, meager as they might be, should go to you. As my wife, that will be assured."

"You're asking me to marry you? Like this?" Tevis clarified.

"Yes."

Tevis scratched her head. This was very strange. She'd never expected Snape to suddenly develop a romantic side and start spouting poetry and singing love ballads for her. But she'd sort of expected that one day he _would_ ask her to marry him. She hadn't really imagined how that would exactly happen, but if she'd tried, his presenting her with a document requiring only her signature to bind them legally would most likely not have presented itself to her as a possibility. But after throwing herself at him, did she have the right to complain now about his methods?

"Fine," she said. "Whatever. Where do I sign?" Snape showed her the spot, and she signed her name with a flourish. Snape did the same (without the flourish), and then Minerva and Harry signed as witnesses. When they were finished, Minerva rolled the parchment and handed it to Snape.

"You know what you must do now. Once the application has been sealed, it will need to be filed with the Ministry. You may leave it with me tomorrow, and I will take care of that for you."

"Thank you, Minerva."

"And now I really must be going," she said.

"I'll walk you out," Harry offered, and they disappeared into the kitchen.

Tevis and Snape stared at each other for countless moments.

"So . . . are we married now?" Tevis asked. "Just like that?"

"No. There is one . . . task that remains to be completed before the parchment can seal itself. But we'll discuss that later."

Harry had returned. The atmosphere was cold, almost frigid, in here, and he looked from Tevis to Snape and back again, wondering if they'd been arguing.

"Harry, could I see you upstairs?" Tevis asked. Without waiting for an answer, she turned and went back up the stairs.

Harry looked questioningly at Snape, but the older man simply shrugged his shoulders. Harry gave him a small smile of encouragement and followed Tevis.

He found her in the room that had once belonged to his parents. She was sitting on the bed and looked up at him quickly before turning away again.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

"Did you know that was going to happen?"

"Not until two minutes before you did." He sat on the bed beside her. "Isn't this what you wanted?" he asked quietly.

"The curse of getting what you want!" She laughed without humor. "This _is_ what I wanted. So why does it feel so . . . empty? Is this how it's always going to be? Did I misinterpret my vision? I'm just so confused!"

Harry noticed tears in her eyes and reached over to take her hand. "He's Snape. You knew he'd be difficult."

"I know," she agreed. "And I had no right to expect anything from him. Yet I find that I was. Why else would I feel so . . . cheated?" She rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm an idiot."

"I've been telling you that for months," Harry joked, then he became serious again. "I don't think anyone imagines their marriage proposal as being like a business deal. I would think most girls have dreamed about planning a big wedding with the bloke of their dreams. And you get this. With Snape. I can see why you'd be disappointed."

"But I have no right to be! _I_ went after _him_! I knew what he was like from the very beginning. I think I just need to accept that my fate is a loveless marriage to someone who feels forced into it by a baby." Tevis rubbed her belly.

"It could get better," Harry offered.

"Yeah, it could." She sighed. "Listen, do you mind if I move up here? Sharing space with him has suddenly become awkward."

"No, of course I don't mind."

"You're sure? This must have been your parents' room. That doesn't bother you?"

"No," Harry said honestly. "I want you to be comfortable here. Can I help you move your things up?"

"No, thanks. I haven't unpacked anything. I'll just shrink my trunk down and bring it up."

"Okay. Let me know if you need help. And give Snape some time. There may be hope for him yet."

##########

Tevis spent the remainder of the afternoon putting her things away in her new room and cleaning. She quit only when it was time to fix supper. She'd planned a simple meal of chicken pie. If she'd known this was to be her wedding feast, she'd have kicked it up a notch.

They ate silently, uncomfortably. As soon as she'd finished eating, Tevis said, "Would you mind terribly cleaning up, Harry? I'm kind of tired. Think I'll turn in early."

"No, not at all. You go ahead."

Both men watched her go. As soon as she was gone, Snape said, "She's going upstairs."'

"Yes. She moved her things up there this afternoon." Snape hadn't been aware of that. He'd spent his afternoon in the basement, moving things around, hoping to set up a laboratory down there.

"Oh. This could get awkward."

"What do you mean?"

Snape sighed. "In order for the marriage application to be sealed, thereby completing the requirements of the contract and allowing the application to be filed with the Ministry with all the rights and privileges appurtenant to such a contract, the marriage must be consummated, and because this is an immediate application, said consummation must occur within twelve hours of the parties' signatures appearing on the document, or the application spontaneously combusts."

Damn! The man hadn't even taken a breath during that recitation. "Huh?" Harry said.

Snape sighed at his obtuseness. "In order for the application to seal itself, which is required before it can be filed with the Ministry, Miss Talmadge and I must . . . have relations. Tonight."

"Oh." _Now_ he got it. "You have to have sex." Why hadn't he just said that? "Does she know this?"

"No."

"Oooh. That's not good. And it has to be tonight?"

"The document will burst into flames at approximately one fifteen tomorrow morning if it hasn't been sealed. And if something should happen to me at the funeral tomorrow, Miss Talmadge and the child will be left unprovided for."

"I see the problem. Now maybe you'd better go explain it to Tevis."

"Quite," Snape agreed. "Would you like help with the dishes?"

"Quit stalling and get upstairs," Harry ordered.

##########

Snape approached cautiously. Tevis had not closed the bedroom door, and he could see her lying on the bed, reading. He tapped on the door frame, and she looked up at him.

"May I come in?" he asked.

"Sure," she said, laying the book aside and sitting up.

"You've moved up here?" he asked with a nonchalance he didn't really feel.

"I thought it made sense. There's all this space up here that's not being used."

Snape prowled restlessly around the room, looking at everything yet seeing nothing. He suddenly realized he was very nervous.

"I told you earlier that there was one more thing we needed to do in order to be legally wed."

"Yes," she prompted when he stopped talking.

"Yes. Well, we must . . . you see, under British wizarding marriage law, hasty marriages solely for financial gain, for one party or the other, were discouraged." Snape fell back on the comfort of the lecture. "In order to avoid the appearance of a marriage being devoid of any real feeling, there is a requirement . . . I don't know if the same is true for marriages in the United States, but here, if a wizard and a witch want their union to be legally recognized immediately, they must consummate that marriage within twelve hours of signing the application. A seal appears on the parchment at the time of . . . said consummation, and the marriage is deemed valid at that moment."

Tevis stared at him. Could this get any worse? Their marriage existed solely on paper. Now their sex life was to be the same? "Oh really?"

"Yes. And to be sure that both parties entered into the union willingly, there is a further requirement that both . . . reach orgasm during the consummation." Snape's face was the slightest shade of pink now.

"Simultaneously, or is there a little wiggle room there?" Given her age, Tevis could have asked this question snidely and with a snicker, but she was deadly serious.

"I'm not aware of any timing requirements."

"And why does this have to be done within twelve hours?"

"The application we signed will spontaneously combust at that time if it is not sealed."

"But why tonight? Why not a regular marriage, with none of these requirements?"

"Because I am to attend Dumbledore's funeral tomorrow, and if I am killed, I want to die with the knowledge that you and the child are provided for to the best of my ability."

Tevis hadn't known Snape was attending the funeral. When she had been kicked out of the "meeting", it had already been decided, she thought, that it was too dangerous for either Snape or Harry to attend. Apparently she was going to be the last one told about everything.

"So let me get this straight," she said, her anger growing. "You and I need to have sex tonight so we can seal a marriage contract which will allow you to die tomorrow, should that situation occur, with a clear conscience?"

Snape smiled, relieved she understood. "Yes."

Tevis stood up. "Get out."

Snape's smile faltered. "What?"

"Get out," she repeated, barely controlling her fury. "Now."

"But I don't . . . what is wrong?"

"You want to know what's wrong with _me? _What's wrong with _you_? You expect me to hop into bed with you just to ensure myself of the vast Snape fortune should you die tomorrow? I've told you before I don't need you to take care of me or 'the child'. I'm perfectly capable of doing that myself. And despite what you might think of me, I don't sleep with someone who has no feelings for me. So you can take your precious parchment and shove it up your ass! Be sure and let me know when it spontaneously combusts, won't you?"

She sat back down on the bed, her back to him, her arms crossed defiantly in front of her chest.

"But . . ."

"Out!"

Snape left. What had just happened? Ten minutes ago, he'd come up here expecting to get some from his lovely young wife. Now he was going back down to Potter, his tail between his legs, no closer to being legally married to her.

"That was quick," Harry noted. He was still clearing the dishes off the table. "I thought you old guys could go forever." He looked closely at Snape's face. "She threw you out!" he said with a grin.

"You needn't look so pleased by that, Potter."

"Want me to go up there and console her?" Harry offered.

Snape's death glare didn't have the same effect on Harry that it used to have, but it answered his question. "Want me to come over there and console you?" he tried.

That offer didn't even rate a lift of the eyebrows. Snape slapped his hand on the table in frustration. "I have legitimate reasons for wanting this marriage recognized by the Ministry!"

"Of course you do," Harry said soothingly. "Just tell me you didn't go up there and present her with those reasons."

"She had a right to know," Snape huffed, "that I wasn't asking just because I wanted . . . her."

Harry slapped his own forehead dramatically. "And you call me an idiot! You thought it was better to go up there and talk her to death rather than just put the moves on her because you want her?! This is incredible!"

"Perhaps I could have handled it differently," Snape grudgingly conceded.

"Do you want to shag her?" Harry asked.

Snape looked at him for an instant, then looked away. "She is . . . attractive. Young and beautiful. I'd be a fool not to want that. And under the right circumstances, _she _wants it."

"Exactly. So get back up there and convince her of that."

Snape sighed. "Perhaps I will help you clean up first, give her some time to . . . cool down."

"Coward," Harry taunted good-naturedly.

"Smart," Snape countered.

##########

Snape stood outside the bedroom door. Tevis had closed it after he'd gone downstairs, not a particularly encouraging sign. He raised his arm to knock, then hesitated, nervous about the reception he'd receive. _Buck up_, he told himself. _You've been face to face with Voldemort countless times. Surely you can handle one small teenaged girl_. He knocked twice.

When he received no answer, he raised his arm to knock again when the door was suddenly flung open.

"What?" Tevis snarled up at him, and Snape took an involuntary step back. Her eyes were flashing, and she looked the very picture of angry denial. But he saw the red-rimmed eyes that told of the tears she'd shed after she'd thrown him out earlier, and her mixture of hardness and vulnerability drew him to her like neither alone could have done.

"I've come to apologize. May I come in?"

"You can say what you have to say right there."

"Please, Miss Talmadge, this is important."

"No, it's not," she contradicted. "You're not going to die tomorrow. I know it already. So even if your little application goes poof, it won't matter because you'll be alive the next day to come up with a new way to break my heart."

"I never meant to . . . Please, may I come in? There are some things I need to explain to you."

"Fine," she said, moving back into the room to allow him entry.

"I like what you've done with the room," Snape offered. The walls were now a powder blue, the curtains and bedding dark blue, and the carpet a thick, cushy tan. It was much brighter than the dark, rose-patterned wallpaper and sea foam green rug which had been here last time he'd come in.

Tevis had spent some of her angry energy by redecorating the room several times in the space of minutes. She'd arrived at this color scheme just before he'd knocked. She wasn't sure whether she liked it, until she heard him say he did. Unfortunately for him, she still had a considerable store of anger to draw from. "I'll change it right away then," she said meanly. She sat stiffly on the bed.

"I did not mean to make you cry," Snape said softly.

Damn! She'd hoped he wouldn't notice.

"I did warn you that being with me would be difficult. Repeatedly."

Tevis turned angrily to face him. "So the fact that you warned me gives you carte blanche to treat me however you like? You can be a jerk or a downright asshole, and that's okay because, hey, you warned me, right? And I'm not entitled to cry or complain or even grumble because I asked for this. I threw myself at you and got exactly what I deserved! What a great relationship this is going to be for you!" She turned away from him again, willing herself not to cry again, not in front of him.

"Are you finished?" he asked quietly.

"Probably not. But that's all for now."

Snape sat beside her on the bed, and she inched away from him. Somehow, he had to find the words to convince her.

"Miss Talmadge," he started. She growled, but he pressed on. "I have never known anyone quite like you. When we first met, I could see there was something about you, a quality that was lacking in everyone else. You touched me, and your mere touch awakened in me a . . . desire for you to touch me again. I'd never experienced that . . . pull before, and I will admit to you now that it frightened me. You were an underaged student, more than twenty years my junior, and an American to boot! And no matter how much I tried to tell myself that we could never have this relationship you so obviously had set your mind on, for all of these reasons, I couldn't stop myself from _wanting _it, couldn't stop myself from wanting you to touch me again, to make me feel alive again as only you could.

"And then that night, you came to me. I still don't know why you came – you had just buried your father. Perhaps you were looking for your Head of House to help you through that difficult time. Instead, what you got was . . . me. In the throes of pain-controlling potions, still suffering the effects of a monstrous curse, unable to control myself. I defiled you – there's no other way to look at it. Tell me – were you a virgin before that night?"

"Yes," Tevis said, her voice small.

Snape sighed. "And that just makes it that much worse. You are so young and beautiful and untouched by evil. You should not have had to give the treasure that was your purity to someone such as I. I took that from you. I sullied your goodness and light."

Tevis turned back to him. "'Sullied'?" she repeated. "Do you know what I did after we had sex that night?"

"Cried? Screamed? Vomited? Showered for forty minutes? Contemplated suicide?" Snape guessed. All of these reactions seemed likely, alone or in any number of combinations.

"No. You were . . . rather quick. A result of the potions and the curse, I suspect. And I was . . . unsatisfied. So before I left your bed, I masturbated. Using your semen as a lubricant. And it was the best orgasm I'd ever had. I finished it off using your hand. You were too out of it to know what was going on. So, far from being disgusted or upset by what you'd done, I was turned on to the point where I had to relieve myself. The only thing I regretted was that you didn't last longer so that we could have come together."

Snape was staring at her, surprised beyond reason by what she was telling him, and more than a little turned on himself. "I don't know . . . I don't know how to react to someone who wants me as you do – without expectation or ulterior motivation. No one ever has. So I keep waiting for this to make sense, for the _reason_ behind it all to be revealed. Because it simply isn't possible for someone like you to want someone like me without a reason."

Tevis reached out and stroked his cheek. "Not only is it possible, it's happening. I think you'd better just get used to that fact. Because I'm not going anywhere. Do you understand?" She gripped his chin tightly, forcing him to meet her eyes.

"No," he said honestly, because he didn't think he'd ever understand how someone as young and gorgeous as she was could want someone as old and, well _un-gorgeous_, as he. "But I'm willing to try to learn to accept." He reached out to touch her cheek, mirroring her gesture. "I'm not sure what you need, Miss Talmadge, and I'm afraid I cannot give it to you. I'm not a romantic man. I won't be taking you out to dinner or dancing as young men your age would no doubt be honored to do. That is just not me."

"I don't need those things. I just need someone who cares for me, or might come to care for me in time, and who loves this baby," she said, putting her hand on her belly.

"But what if I can't . . ."

Tevis silenced him with a finger to his lips. "You can," she assured him.

They stared into each other's eyes for a time, until Snape leaned down and gently kissed her lips.

Tevis kissed him back, but then pulled away. "I meant what I said before. I won't have sex with someone who doesn't have feelings for me. No matter how much I might want it. And certainly not just to assure myself that I'll inherit your assets if you die tomorrow. Which you are _not_ going to do."

"But don't you see, that's the problem? If I didn't have feelings for you, I could just walk away. But I find even the thought of that impossible. I don't have a lot of experience with this type of thing, and I cannot assign a name to what I feel, but I know that the night Dumbledore was killed, my first thought wasn't for myself or for Potter or even for the Headmaster. I was concerned about you and the possibility that someone might hurt you to get to me. I was frantic to get to you. I don't know what these feelings are, Miss Talmadge. I have no experience with love, either giving or receiving, and I do not know if I am even capable of that emotion. I find that I now live in fear of disappointing you."

"You can't disappoint me," Tevis assured him, "unless you shut me out completely. Why didn't you say these things earlier? We could have been having crazy sex all this time!"

A load lifted from Snape's mind. She was going to . . . She was going to let him . . .

Tevis saw the light in his eyes. "I just have two more things to say," she stated. "I am _not_ doing this just to seal your stupid marriage contract. I'm doing it because I want to."

"And?"

"If you call me 'Miss Talmadge' while we're having sex, I will hex your penis clean off."

Snape's eyes widened. "I'll try to remember that."

"See that you do," she advised, then she leaned in to kiss him, a kiss full of promise. He couldn't help but kiss her in return, and their hands soon joined the party. Everywhere their hands met bare skin, that peculiar pleasant vibration rang through them, and Snape thought he was finally – _finally – _going to discover what that sensation felt like when she touched his cock, which twitched in extreme interest at the thought. Tevis dropped a hand to his thigh, landing directly on his engorged member, and Snape gasped at the contact.

"Perhaps we should get more comfortable," Tevis suggested, her lips on his throat and her hand creating a delicious pressure down below.

She pulled away from him and began to unbutton his shirt. Snape waved his wand, dimming the lights almost completely.

Tevis stopped. "Why did you do that?"

"I thought you might prefer a little less light."

Tevis chose to misunderstand. "I understand if you don't want to see me like this."

Snape's wand came up again in a whipping motion, bringing the lights back up to their previous level. "Miss T–" At Tevis' warning glare, he caught himself just in time. "It is _you _who do not wish to see _me_," he said firmly. "You have been the subject of my fantasies for many weeks now. I feel as though I already know you. But I am unattractive to an extreme degree. I know this. You should save yourself this particular disappointment for as long as possible."

Tevis glared sternly at him. "No one disparages my husband that way. Not even you. I want to see you, Severus," she said softly. "_All _of you."

Snape sighed in defeat. Had the child not learned yet to be careful what she wished for? Very well. He supposed he couldn't avoid this forever. Maybe it was better that she see this now. He began the job of unbuttoning his shirt, but she pushed his hands away. "Let me."

When she'd finally finished with the buttons, she pushed his shirt down over his shoulders, and he pulled his arms out. She pulled his undershirt off over his head, revealing his bare chest to her hungry gaze.

Tevis ran her hands over his shoulders, down his arms, over his chest. Snape shivered, but not from cold. Everywhere she touched him, his skin burned with yearning for her and cried out in disappointment when she moved on. She made mental note of the location of several scars with the intention of returning to each later for more in-depth exploration.

"Now the rest," she urged.

Hating himself now more than he ever had, Snape nevertheless stood up, unbuttoned his trousers, and pulled everything down and off at once. Might as well get this over with. He stood before her in his socks, eyes closed, waiting for her condemnation.

Tevis' eyes traveled his body, touching here, landing there, caressing. She wanted her hands to do the same, but for now, she was content just to look. "You're beautiful," she whispered, and she meant it. His body was all sophisticated lines and angles, beautiful in their symmetry. Except his groin. Though Tevis had nothing to judge by (the only penis she'd seen other than line drawings in textbooks had been one-year old Zia Rosa's grandson, whose diapers she'd changed a couple of times), she thought his was most likely the most glorious male member on the planet. It was a delicate pink, as though it was blushing under her scrutiny, and stood tall and proudly pointing at her, regally rising from the nest of black curls at its base.

"Miss Talmadge," Snape said, forgetting himself at the absurdity of her pronouncement. "You needn't . . ." He stopped when he opened his eyes and saw from her face and the desire in her eyes that she hadn't been trying to placate him, that she actually meant what she'd said, as incredible as that might seem to him.

No one had ever looked at him like that, the wanting so naked and obvious, and he was immediately undone by it. She licked her lips when a drop of pre-come escaped, and Snape felt as though he'd shattered into a million pieces. And she hadn't even touched him yet!

"May I?" she asked, indicating his erection with a tilt of her chin.

And her asking for permission weakened him even further. Snape nodded, because he couldn't do anything else.

Tevis approached him and dropped to her knees. With one anticipatory look up at him, she stuck her tongue out and daintily lapped up the drop of liquid. She'd barely made contact with his skin, but a shudder coursed through him, and he knew he wouldn't be able to remain standing much longer.

"I think I need the bed," he said.

"Oh. Okay," she said agreeably, jumping quickly to her feet.

Snape sat on the edge of the bed, pulled off his socks and pushed himself back until he was sitting up against the headboard.

"Would you like to see me?" she asked shyly.

The child should really learn not to leave herself open to ridicule and rejection when dealing with a Death Eater, he thought. But he would sooner cut out his own tongue than hurt her now. "Yes, please," he said simply.

Tevis undressed before him slowly, making a show of it, hoping he liked what he saw. "What do you think?" she asked when she was completely nude.

Snape had to clear his throat before he could speak. "I'm not sure. Perhaps if you came closer."

Tevis' smile beamed out of her face, and she leapt onto the bed. She crouched on all fours and stalked up the bed at him, growling low in her throat. Snape laughed in sheer delight until she pounced on him and kissed him. After a thorough, tongue-lashing kiss, she left his lips to trail her own down his chest, stopping briefly at each nipple, before returning to the target of her attention.

Looking up at him again, she lowered her mouth over the head of his cock, and Snape closed his eyes at the sheer warm, wet wonder of it. Tevis worked at him for a while, experimenting with different positions to see how much of him she could work into her mouth and what different movements of her tongue pulled corresponding moans and whimpers from Snape's throat.

Snape watched her, her head bobbing enthusiastically. He'd certainly had more experienced partners, but not one who seemed so intent on learning what pleased him. Finally, he had to ask her to stop so he wouldn't destroy the requirement that they both reach orgasm. He wasn't sure they needed to do it at the exact same moment, but he wasn't going to risk it by blasting off before she'd even gotten on the launch pad.

"Lay here," he invited, patting the bed next to him. When she complied, his eyes went on a top to bottom tour of her body. She was – perfection. Her face he'd memorized already, so he spent some time learning the parts of her that were normally covered when in his presence. Her breasts, still firm with youth and developing fullness in anticipation of the child she carried, were twin globes of wonder topped with pert brown nipples begging for attention. Her stomach, months ago flat as a board, now protruded with the life within. Some may find that unattractive, but Snape thought it enhanced her allure. The thatch of hair in her pubic region was curly brown and wiry, hiding the entrance to untold pleasures. Her legs, shapely and well-toned, quivered, perhaps in anticipation of spreading for him.

All in all, she looked good enough to eat. He leaned over to capture her lips once more with his. As they kissed, his hands roamed over her smooth body, tracing the swell of her breast, the curve of the hip that the baby bulge hadn't completely obliterated, and down her thigh. She groaned into his mouth, letting him know she liked the attention. And everywhere he touched, he sent the same electric vibration coursing through her system that she'd subjected him to.

He trailed his hand back up to her face and pulled back so that he could look down at her. "I have had many partners," he told her, "both men and women. My encounters have never been about my partner's pleasure and were as brief as was required to . . . complete the job at hand and nothing more. I want to pleasure you, but I'm not sure I know how."

"Then we'll learn together," she said with confidence. "We'll talk to each other and tell each other what we like and don't like. For instance, I really have no interest in anal sex, but if you like that sort of thing done to you, I wouldn't be adverse to it."

She really was remarkably and unusually open about this topic. Despite the significantly greater experience and years he had on her, Snape felt himself blushing, but he plunged ahead. "Done correctly, anal penetration can be very . . . stimulating. Done incorrectly, it can hurt like hell."

"Great! See, this is good!" she said. "Plus, it's making me hot. Okay. Oral sex is something I've always wanted to try. I liked sucking you, and some day, I want to do it until you come in my mouth." Snape's cock jumped in agreement with that plan. "What about you?"

"You really are trying my control, Miss – Tevis. I've engaged in oral sex, both giving and receiving, with men. I've had women perform oral sex on me. I've never, however, done that to a woman."

"That's definitely something we need to try then," Tevis said with anticipation.

"Does it bother you that I've had sex with men?" he asked.

"The truth?"

He nodded.

"It kind of turns me on to think about it. In fact, if I'm totally honest, I can't image anything more exciting than watching you with another guy. Does that make me a pervert?"

"I don't think so. But maybe I'm not the best judge of what constitutes perversion."

"Have you ever had sex with more than one other person?"

"As you saw in the pensieve, the Dark Lord was fond of throwing orgies. At times, there were more people than I could count, all engaged in various sexual acts, some of them quite disgusting." He was _not_ going to tell her about the animals.

"That sounds anything but exciting. I'd like to keep it to you and me and one other person."

He looked at her in surprise. "You aren't seriously suggesting . . ."

Tevis shrugged. "Maybe someday. Why not, if we're all consenting adults, right?"

"You're a very unusual young woman."

"Thank you," she said, kissing him on the tip of his large nose. "So, what else? Oh, I don't think I'd like to be tied up, but if you have a bondage fantasy, I'd be happy to oblige. And I don't care if you like being hurt, I could never do that to you, so I hope you're not a masochist."

"I've had enough of those two things to last me a lifetime," he assured her. "So is there anything else? Because I'd like to stop talking some time soon, I think."

Tevis thought about it. "Other than to tell you that I'm willing to try various positions, no, I don't think so."

"That's good," Snape said, trailing a hand down over a breast and coming to rest on her belly, "because she may force us to become a little creative."

"I like the sound of that."

"Do you?" he asked, dropping his hand further, until it rested at the top of her thigh. Her legs parted, offering him access to her inner secrets, but he didn't accept it. "May I . . ." he searched for the right way to ask for what he wanted, but he'd never had to ask before, and the words seemed somehow foreign.

"You want to taste me there?" she asked helpfully.

"Yes," he said gratefully.

"I'd like that very much."

"I will endeavor not to disappoint you."

"I love it when you talk dirty."

He chuckled, then kissed her thoroughly before trailing a line of feather-light kisses down her neck. He stopped to pay homage to both nipples with his tongue, planted a tender kiss on her abdomen, and moved downward.

Tevis settled back into the pillows and spread her legs, knees up, inviting. Snape took a moment to simply look. He'd fucked women before, of course, but he'd never stopped to actually look at a woman's private parts. It was . . . intriguing.

He reached out with one long finger and ran it through her folds. He found her pleasantly ready for anything. "You're very wet," he murmured.

"I told you I was hot. That feels good." She opened her legs wider still, wanting more.

Using one finger from each hand, he spread her open. Clear liquid oozed from her center. Her smell was pungent but not unpleasant. As a Potions Master, he'd ground many herbs that had this same trait.

Ah, the clitoris. The center of a woman's pleasure. Hard to believe that something so tiny could unleash such intense feelings. Snape bent down and touched the tip of his tongue to it, as she'd done with his cock earlier.

"Oh," she said, closing her eyes at the intensity of the feeling he generated.

"Good 'oh'?" he asked.

"Very good 'oh'," she confirmed. "More like a do-that-again 'oh'."

So he did. This time, he ran his tongue around the little nub, twice. "Oh," she said again, squirming just a little, wanting more.

"How about this?" He bent lower and wrapped his lips around her pleasure nub. Incredibly, it seemed to grow longer at this, and Snape ran his mouth up and down, up and down, causing her to push her hips up, driving herself further into his willing mouth.

"Jesus, Joseph and Mary!" she cried. "What are you . . . oh, that's good . . . yes, like that!"

When he stopped, she moaned in frustration. And then his nose entered the picture. He pressed the end against her clitoris, then began to rub at it, creating a delicious friction. "Holy . . . sh– . . . Oh my God, is that your nose?!" she panted. "It feels just like a little cock!" Indeed, on the down stroke, Snape was actually inserting his overly large proboscis into her vagina.

He stopped that motion only long enough to wrap his lips around her once more. Then he extended his tongue and wiggled her clitoris back and forth repeatedly.

Tevis had been reduced to a quivering bundle of nerve endings. "I need . . ." she gasped.

"What do you need?"

"I need you. In me. Now!"

He could see how close she was and knew the moment was at hand. He pulled himself up along her length, thought about kissing her but decided against it, assuming she'd rather not, considering where his mouth had been.

"How do you want to do this?" he asked, her obvious excitement increasing his own.

She turned on her side, away from him. "Get on your side," she instructed.

He did, lying behind her, his front to her back, their skin touching in all sorts of delicious places, his erection poking through between her legs. She squeezed her legs together around him, and he moved back and forth several times, enjoying the sensation. "Merlin!" he breathed into her neck. "I'd better stop that!" If he didn't, he'd spill himself all over her leg and the sheets.

Tevis threw her top leg over his and scooted up a bit, allowing him to angle the head of his pulsing cock up into her wetness. She raised up and kissed him, not caring that he tasted of her own essence. In fact, that seemed to turn her on more, because she cried, "Now!"

And he obliged. With one sure thrust, he was entirely sheathed in her hot tunnel. Merlin, she was tight! Her muscles wrapped around him, caressing him. He immediately increased his pace. He was close, so close, and when she reached up and began sucking on his nose, he knew he was going to lose it. But he needed her there, too. He reached down between them, found her magic button, and pressed down on it with one finger, so that it rubbed on his cock as he pistoned in and out of her furiously.

"Come . . . with me, Severus," she commanded, and he did, exploding inside of her with a force he'd never known, emitting a guttural cry when he did so, bursting points of light in his head blinding him and forcing him to experience this bliss even more strongly.

Her own climax wracked through her, her vaginal muscles tightening and releasing, squeezing and massaging his cock as he gave her everything he had.

When he finally stopped moving inside her, Tevis whimpered and put her own finger on the spot Snape's had vacated in the throes of his orgasm and shuddered through the rest of hers.

They lay, limbs entwined, Snape's cock slowly softening and then finally slipping out of her, breathing slowly coming under control, for a full five minutes before either of them could speak. Meanwhile, on the table beside the bed, a red seal, as if of wax, appeared on the license application, "June 18, 1997, 8:53 p.m." embossed in it.

"I believe the earth may have just moved," Snape said.

"Or fallen completely off its axis," Tevis guessed.

They lay together for a time without speaking further, until finally Tevis couldn't stay still any longer and began to run her hand over his chest and down his belly. She rested on his flaccid cock and looked up at him hopefully.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "I am an old man, my dear, no longer capable of multiple erections in a single session."

"Nonsense," Tevis said, dismissing his statement. "When's the last time you tried, hmmm? Maybe you just need proper motivation."

"And you think you can properly motivate me?"

"I can sure as hell try," she promised. "Will you let me?"

Surprised again by her request for permission, he didn't speak. She reached up to kiss him, pressing her naked length against his own. He returned the kiss enthusiastically enough, all the while doubting she'd be able to accomplish what she'd obviously set her mind to. But he was certain he'd enjoy the effort, so he said, "Motivate away."

Tevis ran her hands through Snape's hair as they kissed. How she longed to wash his stringy locks! She left his lips, and trailed a line of kisses along his jaw bone to this left ear, where she explored the lobe and the edge of his ear with her tongue. A line of kisses, licks and little bites brought her to his Adam's apple, then up to his right ear, which she lavished with the same attention she'd given the other. Snape hummed happily beneath her.

Using her hands, Tevis explored his collar bone and his shoulders. Her tongue replaced her fingers, dancing over the protruding bones there. She then worked her way into his armpit, nudging his arm up and running her nose through the patch of dark hair there, inhaling deeply of his man scent. She stuck her tongue out to taste him there, causing him to shudder slightly. A line of quick, light kisses down the inside of his arm caused a similar sensation, like tickling but much more pleasant. When she reached his hand, she played with each of his fingers before sucking the length of each one into her mouth. It was then that Snape felt his spent cock beginning to twitch with interest. Tevis found her way to the opposite armpit and bestowed the same attention on the other arm and hand.

Now to learn the geography of his chest, with its delightful nipple peaks and belly button valley. Tevis kissed, licked and sucked every inch of skin she could reach, reducing Severus to low moans of need. His cock had nearly reached full hardness again, surprising him, and he pushed up against her, hoping she'd get the hint. She did, but she didn't take it.

Sparing only a chaste kiss for his rigid member on her way by, she set out to discover his legs with wiry thick hair, his knobby knees, his ankles which she found oddly sexy, and his feet and toes. Especially his toes. She spent more time on his toes than she had his fingers, sucking each one into her mouth, massaging them with her tongue, blowing them dry. By the time she'd finished, Snape was nearly begging. "Please," he said.

"Soon," she promised. "We're only half done. Roll over."

Snape complied, tucking his painfully hard prick up against his belly. Tevis started with his shoulders, working her way down over the multitude of scars on his back, touching each one, learning it, tasting it. She skipped his buttocks in favor of torturing the backs of his legs. He was about to protest the unfairness of it all when she remedied the situation herself.

Here, finally, his body had some curve, and she appreciatively squeezed the mounds of his ass. Gently, wondering if he'd stop her, she pulled his cheeks apart, revealing the secret entrance to his body. She bent to apply a kiss there, and he moaned brazenly and spread his legs wider to give her better access. She kissed her way down his perineum to his balls, lying flat against the mattress. She kissed them, and Snape's legs went wider still, allowing her enough room to suck each ball into her mouth and roll it gently with her tongue.

Tevis then returned to his anus, spreading him open to her hungry gaze once again. Another kiss, this time followed by her tongue tracing around its edge, causing it to contract. Once he relaxed again, Tevis stiffened her tongue and poked it through the tight sphincter.

Snape moaned loudly and wantonly. No one had done this to him before, and the sensations it was sending crashing through his system had shut down his higher functioning. He was reduced to a bundle of nerves extending from that one small spot out to the ends of all of his extremities. His nerves screamed with the intensity of it, craving release almost as much as his next breath.

"I'm gonna . . . oh God . . . don't stop . . ." he groaned as her tongue worked in and out of his hole. His hips began to move, grinding his erection into the mattress, but Tevis reached out to stop him from moving. That was cheating. "I need . . ." Snape panted. "You."

Tevis stopped, and Snape flipped over quickly. His second erection, which he'd thought impossible, pointed proudly up at him, twitching and jumping with anticipation. Tevis lowered her mouth over it, and Snape had only a moment to wonder that she was actually doing this after he'd fucked her. She had to taste herself on his cock, but far from being turned off, she seemed to like it. Indeed, she said, "Mmm," as she sucked him deep into her throat, and the vibration nearly pushed him over the edge.

"I'm going to come very soon," he was able to warn her. Her next vacuum-tight suction up his cock was the last, and he popped audibly out of her mouth.

Tevis pulled herself up this chest for a soul-searing kiss. She positioned Snape below her, holding his head at her entrance, allowing him to feel her wetness on the very tip.

He tried to move up into her, but she pulled away just enough to prevent that. "What's my name?" she asked.

"T–Tevis," he gasped, mindless with need. "Tevis . . . now . . . I need . . . Oh God!" This last as she slid her tight warmth down and around him. She sat astride him, his cock buried to the balls in her body. And then she began to ride him, slowly. This was too much for him to take, and he thrust up into her, once, twice, three times, and he was gone, for the second time tonight. As he groaned through his release, she lay down on him, and his arms went round her back to hold her tightly.

When he was finally spasmed out, he kissed the top of her head, unable to speak.

"I knew you could do it," she murmured proudly. She rolled off him, landing at his side, her head on his shoulder, his arm around her. And he was amazed by how right she felt there.

"I wish I could purr," she noted.

They lay there quietly until their breathing evened out. "You know," Tevis said. "Maybe we ought to put some clothes on. If we don't, I may feel compelled to do some more motivating."

Snape chuckled under her ear, because three times was surely the stuff of fantasy. "Are you _trying_ to kill me?"

"What a way to go," she noted, half asleep.

"Quite," he agreed. He summoned their night clothes, and they separated long enough to dress before settling back into each other's arms.

"You should move your stuff up here," Tevis suggested. "Let Harry have the downstairs bedroom."

"I'll do that tomorrow."

"Good night, husband."

Snape kissed the top of her head. "Good night, Tevis, my dear young wife. Thank you."

"Pleasure was mine," she replied.

"Not entirely," he noted, stroking her hair. He felt and heard her breathing deepen. Sated and exhausted, he followed her into the dark oblivion.

##########

Waking with a warm young woman in his arms was something Snape thought he could get used to. His morning erection liked it, too. Snape wondered if he could make productive use of it before getting out of bed. He peered blearily at the clock beside the bed and was instantly awake. Merlin! He had only an hour before Dumbledore's service – he'd overslept, for the first time in – well, pretty much forever.

He tried to extricate himself from beneath Tevis without waking her, but of course, that was impossible.

"Good morning," she said with an endearingly warm sleepy smile.

"You are a bad influence on me," he told her. "I've overslept."

She stretched languidly and rolled on top of him, pressing her groin down onto his erection and wriggling. "Too bad. Captain Eager is ready to go again."

Snape chuckled and smoothed hair away from her face. "He's waited a long time. He can wait a few more hours."

"Maybe _I_ can't," she said, kissing him.

He kissed her back, then pushed her off onto the bed. "I need a shower and some breakfast, and then I need to go." He got out of bed and grabbed the rest of his clothes from the floor.

"Can I help?" she asked with a leer.

"With the breakfast, not the shower."

"You're no fun," she pretended to pout, then bounced happily out of bed. "Any requests?"

"Something quick," he said on his way out of the door.

Harry was already up when Tevis made her way to the kitchen. She smiled brightly at him. "Good morning."

"Morning," he mumbled. "I made coffee."

"Bless you!" Tevis said, and she poured herself a cup.

"Where's Snape?"

"Showering. He overslept and hasn't got much time. I need to throw together a quick breakfast."

"You do eggs, and I'll get the bacon?" Harry suggested.

"You're on," she agreed.

They worked together companionably but silently. By the time the food was cooked, Snape swept into the kitchen, looking quite sharp in his best dress robe.

"Good morning," he said curtly to Harry. He sat and began to eat quickly. Tevis and Harry ate as well, though not as quickly – they had all day.

"Thank you for that. I will probably not be back in time for lunch, so do not wait for me."

"The cloak is there," Harry said, pointing to the counter beside the door where the invisibility cloak lay. Snape was to apparate under it to a spot in Hogsmeade, where he would be met by Hagrid and escorted to the castle. He would be under the cloak the entire time he was away – it was the only way Minerva had agreed to let him attend.

"Thank you."

Tevis stood up and hugged Snape. "You will look after her?" he asked Harry over the top of her head.

"Of course."

Snape held Tevis at arm's length, then bent down to kiss her.

"Be safe," she said, though she wasn't very worried. She knew he'd be coming home to her.

"I will," he promised.

"Do you have the license?"

Snape patted the pocket of his robe. "Yes. I will see you both later." He swirled the cloak over himself and was gone from sight. The door opened, then closed, and they heard the sound of him apparating away.

Tevis sat back down and sighed. "That man melts my popsicle."

The orange juice Harry had just taken into his mouth now came back out, sprayed all over the table. "Tevis!"

Tevis giggled, but didn't defend herself.

"So. You're married?" Harry asked.

"Yep."

"Congratulations."

"Thanks."

"So . . . how was it?" Harry was looking at his plate, his fork toying idly with his eggs.

"How was what?" she asked.

"The . . . you know."

"Harry, look at me." When he did, she said, "Don't be embarrassed. Sex is just a fact of life."

"Well, it's not a fact of _my _life, but I get your point. So?" he prompted.

"It was amazing! Remember that buzzing feeling I told you about? When I touched Severus?" He nodded. "I think it intensified the sex! It was mind-blowing."

"Well, do me a favor. Next time, use a silencing charm. Listening to the two of you go at it up there was . . . difficult."

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry! By difficult, do you mean . . ."

"Yes. Hard. _Very_ hard."

Tevis winced in sympathy. "Sorry. If I wasn't a married woman, I'd offer to do something about that."

"Don't make it worse," he groaned. "Besides, I . . .took care of it myself. Last night."

Tevis smiled at his pink cheeks. "Severus is moving his stuff upstairs today. You won't have to sleep on the sofa anymore."

"Brilliant! I can sleep alone on the _bed_ as opposed to alone on the _sofa_."

Tevis couldn't solve that problem, so she didn't say anything. They finished their breakfast in silence.

"Why did Severus go alone to the funeral? I would have thought you would have wanted to go, too," Tevis asked when they were cleaning up.

"I did," Harry said. "We couldn't both go. Snape's known him longer, owed him more, was owed more. I insisted he go." It had actually been Harry who had revisited the subject after Minerva had decided neither of them would go. There was no reason Snape couldn't go under the cloak.

"Why couldn't you both go?"

"Someone had to stay here with you," he pointed out.

"Ridiculous!" Tevis snorted.

"No, it's not," Harry disputed. "We love you, and we want to keep you and your baby safe."

Tevis smiled. "Aw, Harry. I love you, too. What should we do today?"

##########

When Snape finally returned, Harry and Tevis were nearly finished cleaning the house. The preserving charms placed on the house had prevented the accumulation of most dirt, but Tevis thought a washdown of all walls and floors was in order. When Snape came through the door, Tevis was on her hands and knees scrubbing the living room floor. Harry, who had done his share using magic, was lounging on the sofa.

"What are you doing?" Snape asked.

Tevis looked up. "Severus! You're back!"

Snape went to her quickly and assisted her to her feet. "What are you doing on the floor?" he asked again.

"Cleaning."

"You can use magic for that."

Tevis stood on tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. "Like Mister Lazybones over there?" she asked, indicating Harry. "Not everything is better with magic."

They all heard the sound of someone apparating outside the door, and Harry sat up, alarmed. "Were you followed?"

"As a matter of fact, I was," he confirmed. "By Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger."

Harry sprang up off the sofa. "Ron and Hermione are here?!" He bounded into the kitchen excitedly.

"How are you?" Tevis asked.

Snape pulled her into his embrace. "I'm much better now."

They stood that way for a time, listening to the happy babble of voices in the kitchen.

"Oh!" Snape said suddenly. "Minerva sent a wedding present." He reached inside the pocket of his robe and pulled out a small cube. He set it down in a corner of the room, moved a table aside, then removed his wand.

A small upright piano grew from the cube, complete with bench.

"I didn't know you played."

"Mm hmm," Tevis nodded, her attention on the beautiful instrument before her, her fingers itching to touch it.

"The guitar, too? I've noticed one in your things."

"Mm hmm," Tevis said again.

"Is there lunch?" Snape asked. He had left immediately after the service, choosing to forego the meal being served in the Great Hall for those assembled.

"Um . . . yeah. I made chicken salad sandwiches. I'll just go and . . ."

"No," Snape interrupted. "I'll get them. You should . . . see if this thing works."

"Yeah, okay," Tevis nodded gratefully.

Snape returned to the kitchen, and conversation stopped as soon as he entered. Harry was already in the process of fixing his friends lunch. "Hungry?" he asked.

"I could eat," Snape admitted.

In the living room, Tevis ran her fingers up and down the scales.

"Is that a piano?" Harry asked.

"A present from Minerva," Snape explained.

"Harry told us about your . . . that you'd gotten married, Professor," Hermione said timidly. "Congratulations."

"Thank you, Miss Granger. Miss Talmadge is in the living room if you'd like to see her."

Harry snorted in amusement. "Don't you mean 'Mrs. Snape'?"

"Ye gods!" Snape said, startled. "I guess I do."

They all chuckled at his astonishment.

While they ate, they listened to Tevis play. The three youngsters had all heard her before, of course, but Snape had not, and he was suitably impressed. When she told him she could not read music but learned from hearing a piece played by someone else, he was even more impressed.

After they'd eaten, Harry, Ron and Hermione retired to Harry's room and shut the door. They were in there for a time before Harry poked his head out and asked Snape to join them. Tevis tried not to feel excluded, but she couldn't help feeling a little grumpy, and suddenly the piano wasn't as exciting as it had been. She got up and wandered into the kitchen, thinking she'd clean up the lunch remains, but someone (she was betting on Hermione) had already done so.

With nothing else to do, Tevis went upstairs to the nursery, wondering if they could use this room when the baby came (assuming they were still here) or if the vibe was just too . . . evil. It was a nice room, if you could look past the missing ceiling and wall and if you could forget what had happened here.

She'd have to talk to Harry, see how he felt. She sighed and went into her own room and lay down on the bed. She closed her eyes, imaging how the nursery might look, painted pink and occupied by a baby.

##########

She didn't realize she'd fallen asleep until she awoke to a weight settling beside her on the bed. The weight caused her to roll toward Severus, who caught her up in his arms and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"Hi," she said, all warm and delicious and sleepy.

"Hello."

"Are Ron and Hermione still here?" she asked, stretching like a cat in his arms.

"They just left."

"Is it time to start supper?" she asked, starting to rise.

"Hush," he said, pulling her back down. "Potter said he'd do it."

"Oh," she said, snuggling back against him.

"You play the piano beautifully."

"Thank you," Tevis said, pleased. "My mom played. She could do it right, though – she read music.

"I don't think that's the _right_ way, not if you can make such beautiful music without reading the notes."

Tevis smiled, squirming slightly under his praise.

"You'll have to play the guitar for me some time."

"I'd love to. Now?"

"No. Not now." Snape's eyes darkened. "I . . . um . . . brought you something, too." He held up his hand and showed her a gold band.

Tevis sat up, a hand over her mouth. "Oh, Severus!"

"If you're going to be my wife, I want to make sure everyone knows it."

She eyed him appreciatively. "I didn't know you were so possessive."

"Very much so. Do you like it? Because I can . . ."

Tevis snatched the ring out of his fingers. "I _love_ it!" she assured him. The gold band was about one-half inch thick and had a leafy vine engraved on it.

"Look inside."

Tevis did, and she immediately spotted the inscription. _Severus and Tevis ~ June 18, 1997_.

"Do you have one for you, too?"

Snape removed a second ring from his pocket and showed it to her. It was a little wider, but otherwise identical to the one she held in her hand. She took this one from him as well. "Does this one say, 'I belong to Tevis, so get your bloody hands off'?"

"It doesn't have to. That is written here," he said, placing a hand over his heart.

Well, she had to kiss him after that, didn't she? When they broke apart, Snape took from her her ring and then took her left hand in his. He placed the ring at the end of her finger, looked into her eyes, and pushed the ring all the way on. It was too large, but as soon as it settled at the base of her finger, the metal warmed, and the ring shrank to the perfect size.

Tevis then placed Snape's ring on his finger, and it magically sized to him. She kissed him again. "How long do we have before dinner?"

"We have plenty of time." Snape's mouth descended on hers. Tevis reached under her pillow, withdrew her wand, and wordlessly cast a silencing charm.

##########

The following day, Harry was helping Snape in the basement, clearing space for a potions lab and putting up shelving. Tomorrow they would start moving in all of the supplies and ingredients Snape had brought with them.

"While I was at Hogwarts yesterday," Snape said, "I visited the Room of Requirement."

"Did you? Was that your first visit there?"

"Yes. The idea is . . . extraordinary."

"Mmm," Harry agreed, brushing a spider off his arm. "How did you get in?"

"I asked Minerva about it. She told me where it was and how to access it. I asked for 'the room where Harry Potter had hidden the potions text'. And a door appeared and . . . voila. But the room was filled with the detritus of countless years of endless students. Needless to say, I didn't find the book."

"I wish you'd told me you were going. I could have told you where I'd hidden it."

"No matter. It was a whim, really. I thought since I was there, I'd give it a try."

Harry could see that Snape was disappointed not to have found the book, and he resolved to return it to Snape some time soon.

The sound of the piano began over head, and they paused for a moment to listen. After warming up, Tevis began to sing along. Snape's mouth dropped open. "She sings rather well," he said. She was also full of surprises.

"You've never heard her sing before?"

"No. She really is quite a remarkable young woman." He absently spun his new wedding ring around on his finger.

"Some of us have appreciated her for a very long time," Harry said, somewhat miffed.

"If she had not had this . . . still unexplainable fascination with me, do you think you and she would have . . .?"

"I was certainly interested," Harry said.

"Did you tell her so?"

"I did. The very first day we met. Remember that day, when she stood up for me in your class? Malfoy had wrongfully accused me of . . ."

"Yes, yes. I remember," Snape said. If he let Harry get started down the path of Snape's maltreatment of him, they'd be here all day.

"She told me that day she wanted you. She was very decent about breaking my heart."

Snape looked astounded. "So, given the choice between The-Boy-Who-Lived and The-Old-Man-Who-Really-Never-Did, she chose me?"

"I know," Harry agreed. "Mind boggling. Even back then she was sure you'd work out."

"Did she tell you what she saw, to convince her?"

"Yes," Harry said warily.

"Tell me," Snape said, trying to put as much menace as he could into it.

Unfortunately for him, he'd lost some of his power to frighten Harry Potter. "She still hasn't?"

Snape shook his head in confirmation. "No."

"Then I'm not telling you either. Nuh-uh," Harry said when Snape tried to catch his eye. "Don't even think about trying to Legillimens me. If you want to know, ask her."

Snape growled in frustration. He _had_ asked Tevis, and she steadfastly refused to tell him. She wouldn't even tell him _why_ she wouldn't tell him. He'd sneaked a peak at her visions journal, which was fascinating in itself. Each page contained one entry and was headed by a date. The image that Tevis had seen was there, as well as handwritten notes below it, attempting to interpret the vision. For instance, the page containing Tevis' vision of Dumbledore contained the date (October 5, 1996), a photo of the Headmaster feeding Fawkes some sort of treat and Tevis' notes below it: "Nothing to indicate a date - could take place any time. Appears to be the Headmaster's office. Headmaster doesn't appear any older in the vision than he does now, though he's so friggin' old it's hard to tell." Under the notes had been added, by a hand other than Tevis': _Vision confirmed, March 8, 1997._

Severus had been interested to read the page containing Harry's entry as well. He watched her vision play out on the page, then read her notes: "Cannot read the date on the newspaper. Harry appears to be perhaps 35-45. He seemed most interested in the fact that he attained this ripe old age. Wonder why. I certainly don't recognize the room he's sitting in. Given how far away it looks, it's possible Harry wouldn't recognize it either, as it probably doesn't exist as part of his world yet. He's going to be a very handsome middle-aged git."

And though there was an entry titled "October 5, 1996 - Severus Snape", there was no copy of the vision she'd had and no writing beneath it, as there was for every other entry in the book. The lack of detail made Snape think that she suspected he might some day snoop in her journal.

"Anyone down there hungry?" Herself called from the top of the stairs.

"Is it time to eat already?" Harry asked, glad for the interruption. He dashed up the stairs before Snape could press him further. Frustrated, Snape followed him up at a more sedate pace.

"Beef stew," Tevis announced in response to Harry's question. "It's been simmering all afternoon." She carried the hot pot to the table.

"Is there any more of that bread you baked yesterday?" Harry asked as he sat at the table.

"Sure," Tevis said. "I'll get it if Severus will move his cute little butt." Snape had been leaning against the counter, and now he moved away to allow Tevis access.

"Oh, now that's just nauseating," Harry complained. He then seemed to reconsider that and took a closer, more critical look at Snape's backside. Snape, clad in the black jeans he'd taken to wearing since they'd been here, was not too bad, really. Sexy, in a scrawny, dark, lean, tight little muscles kind of way, Harry thought. "Hmmm. I see what you mean."

Snape turned around so that his backside was no longer facing Harry and so that he could stare imperiously down at the boy. Harry, unabashed, took the opportunity to run his eyes up and down Snape's front side. Snape didn't look all that bad from this view, either, Harry thought, and he nodded appreciatively.

Tevis watched Harry watching Severus and found it more than a little sexy.

"Mr. Potter, we need to find you a more appropriate outlet for your . . . emotions," Snape noted drily.

"I'm open to suggestions."

##########

After dinner, Harry and Snape began to clean up, as had become their habit. Whoever cooked was excused from clean-up duty.

Tevis stood up. "I'm going to soak in a hot tub," she announced. When there was no response, she added, "In case you miss me." And she left to go upstairs.

"Think she was talking to me?" Harry asked hopefully.

Snape silenced him with a look. The two men worked for many minutes without speaking. The second time Snape tried to put dirty dishes away in the cupboard, Harry snapped. "Oh, for God's sake! Go upstairs! You know you want to!"

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Snape asked innocently.

"Go! Have your conjugated visit!"

Snape surprised Harry by throwing his head back and laughing aloud. He'd never heard the man laugh like that before. Evil chuckles, sure, but not pure laughter like this. It was almost musical. "What? What did I say?"

"Something remarkably prophetic. You should look that word up, though I think what you _meant_ to say was 'conjugal'."

"Are you still here?" Harry asked pointedly. "Go!"

Snape went. He tapped quietly on the bathroom door. "Come in," he heard his wife call.

Snape entered and shut the door behind him. He turned to take in the vision of her soaking in the tub. "What if I'd been Potter?"

"Then I'd've let him look his fill and then sent him on his way."

"You'd let him look?" Snape asked, coming closer.

Tevis shrugged. "Nothing he hasn't seen before."

Snape's uplifted eyebrow spoke volumes. There was a story here, though he wasn't sure he wanted to hear it.

"Harry was having . . . doubts about his own sexuality. He wasn't sure if he liked boys or girls. I offered to help him . . . experiment."

"Oh?" The 'and?' was clearly implied.

"Yes. We kissed. I took off my shirt and he touched me."

"Oh?" again. The eyebrow, which had never resumed its normal position, now climbed even higher.

"Mmmm," she confirmed. "It was really rather . . . arousing. I think it could have gone further, but he stopped. Damn Gryffindor."

Dead _Gryffindor_, Snape thought, _if he ever tries _that _again. _"And from this, you deduced that he . . . prefers women?"

"No. I'm pretty sure he likes both."

"Am I going to have to keep my eye on Potter?" Snape growled.

"Probably," Tevis said with a giggle.

Snape sat on the ledge beside the tub. "I told you I'm jealous and possessive, right?"

Tevis laughed again. "You're sexy when you're all worked up."

Snape looked more closely at the tub. What used to be an old-fashioned claw-footed white porcelain tub was now a two-person blue creation surrounded by a wooden platform. "What did you do?"

"I fixed it up a little. Do you like it?"

"It's nice. I like what's _in_ it better."

"Care to join me?" she invited. "Before you do, I really need a shave." She held up a razor.

"You can do that by magic, you know."

"I keep telling you – not everything is better with magic."

Snape took the razor from her hand and picked up the can of shaving cream beside him. He looked at it, hoping it would explain how to work itself.

"Just press on the top," Tevis said helpfully.

Snape did, and cream squirted down the side of the can.

"Catch it in your hand."

Snape scraped the escaped foam off the side of the can, then squirted the can again until his hand was full of foam. "Now what?"

Tevis extended a leg out of the water. "Rub it on."

Snape did. He lathered her leg from ankle to just above her knee where it cleared the water. He picked up the razor and looked at Tevis for permission. She nodded, and he placed the razor on the skin at her ankle, pulled it up her shin and over the knee cap. He looked at her, to make sure he'd done it right, but she'd leaned her head back against the tub, eyes closed.

Supporting her foot, Snape shaved the rest of her leg slowly, gently. When he finished, he did the other leg. She was right – the non-magic way _was _better and involved a lot of touching of her skin.

"Thank you," she said when he'd finished. Without her wand, she cast a cleaning spell to rid the water of the shaving cream scum, leaving only the bubbles. "Now you need to get in here with me."

Snape undressed slowly and stepped into the tub. He attempted to sit at the opposite end, facing her, but she directed him to sit with his back to her. Tevis got out of the water and sat on the ledge behind Snape. Again without her wand, she conjured a cup, which she used to wet Snape's hair.

Using her own shampoo, she lathered his hair slowly, massaging his scalp, scratching gently with her fingernails.

"What is that smell?" he asked. It was familiar – it was Tevis' scent.

"Guess, Mr. Potions Master."

Snape inhaled deeply. "Lavender. And . . . vanilla?"

"Right in one," she said. "It's my own scent. I entered a potions contest when I was fourteen. I created this scent. Won second prize with it. I use it in shampoo and soap and lotion."

"It is an aroma I associate with you," he said.

Tevis rinsed his hair, then conditioned it. She then cast a cleaning spell again, then a warming spell on the water, and sat in front of him, between his legs. His arms went round her, and she leaned back into his chest. "This is nice," she said with a sigh.

Snape rubbed her belly. "Yes, it is. How long have you been able to do wandless magic?" he asked.

"For a couple of years," she told him. "One day, it just happened. I've been practicing it since. I can't do anything really powerful without my wand, but for simple things I've gotten pretty good."

Snape kissed the top of her head. "You continue to amaze me." He dropped his nose to her hair, inhaling deeply. His erection pressed against her back, and he didn't even try to hide it.

"I was thinking an early bedtime might be a good idea," she suggested.

Snape pretended to mull that over. "An excellent suggestion."

Tevis stood up, water sheeting down her body. Snape stood as well and removed the clip from her hair, releasing it to fall to her shoulders.

Tevis summoned two towels, which they wrapped around themselves for as long as it took to get into the bedroom. Then, the towels fell to the floor and they fell onto the bed, wrapped in each other's arms.


	5. Chapter 5

**Worth Waiting For**

by warviben

**Summary**: A student new to Hogwarts will change Snape's and Harry's lives in ways they could never have imagined.

**Warnings**: This fic contains detailed descriptions of sexual encounters. Some of them are hetero- and some are male/male/female. If this type of thing is not for you, I suggest you stop reading now. Now, because this is where it all begins.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters (well, most of them anyway). If you're reading this, you likely know that.

**Note: **The song lyrics in this chapter are from _There's No Place Like London_, from Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Chapter 5

"Will we be here a long time, do you think?" Tevis asked at breakfast.

"That is impossible to say," Snape answered after finishing his bite of toast. "Are you bored already?"

"No," Tevis assured him. "I actually kind of like it here." She did. It was quiet here, and peaceful. She had been able to keep busy so far, cleaning the house and making it habitable once again. They had frequent visits from Ron, Hermione, and Professor McGonagall which helped to break up the monotony that might be a problem if they only had each other for company.

Though she was getting a little tired of the conversations that stopped when she walked into the room, Tevis was trying not to let it bother her. When Ron and Hermione were here, they would closet themselves in Harry's bedroom, sometimes with Severus, for hours. When his friends weren't here, Harry and Severus had their heads together, pouring over books, making notes, talking. They were planning something, that much was obvious. As she got better at eavesdropping, Tevis learned that they had no idea where this "something" was, or even precisely _what_ it was. When she finally heard the word "horcrux", it didn't help because she had no idea what that meant, and she knew better than to ask questions.

No, so far this wasn't a bad life. But it could be better.

"I was just thinking," Tevis continued. "There's a garden out back." She'd seen it through the window. "If we could extend the protections beyond the boundaries of the garden, I could clean it up. We could have fresh vegetables and grow our own herbs."

This idea had merit, thought Severus. Fresh herbs were often required in his potions, and a ready source would be very helpful indeed. "I think that's an excellent idea," he said. "I'll speak with Minerva next time she comes. I don't see any reason why that would be a problem. Just don't over-extend yourself."

"I won't," Tevis assured him. "Harry will help, won't you, Harry?" she asked brightly as Harry came into the kitchen, yawning and scratching his unruly head.

"With what?" he asked sleepily, dropping into a chair.

"We're going to clean up the garden!" Tevis announced happily.

Harry did not have to work to control his enthusiasm over that idea. "Brilliant," he deadpanned.

"This is what happens to people who laze about in the morning," Snape warned him. "They get roped into all sort of awful jobs."

"Laze about? It's only – OI! It's nine-thirty! I had no idea. Is there any breakfast left?"

Tevis jumped up. "I'll fix you something."

"Thank you."

"Anything for you, my dear Harry!" Tevis sang. She was in an inordinately good mood today.

Snape rolled his eyes.

Minerva coincidentally visited later that morning, and she and Snape spent an hour or so extending the protective boundary to include the garden. The apparition spot was moved to just beyond the garden gate. Tevis couldn't wait to get her hands dirty, and she took a quick tour of the plot, planning what to plant where. Minerva promised to get her whatever she needed by way of seeds, seedlings and supplies.

##########

"I realize that you are far from home, and that this is a holiday of sorts in your homeland," Snape said. "However, I would sincerely appreciate it if you could find something else to sing."

Today was July 4. Since just after breakfast, Tevis had been singing songs in homage to her birth land. Severus thought he might vomit if he heard God blessing the USA one more time.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Am I annoying you?" Tevis asked, all mock innocence.

"Just a bit," Severus confessed.

"Well, let's see if I can think of something else. Oh, I know. How about this?

_There's a hole in the world like a great black pit_

_and the vermin of the world inhabit it_

_and its morals aren't worth what a pig can spit_

_and it goes by the name of London._

_At the top of the hole sit the privileged few_

_making mock of the vermin in the lonely zoo_

_turning beauty into filth and greed . . . _

_I too have sailed the world and seen its wonders_

_for the cruelty of men is as wondrous as Peru_

_but there's no place like London!_

Better?"

Severus couldn't help it. He threw back his head and laughed.

##########

Evenings were usually quiet. The three of them congregated in the living room, reading, watching television, or talking. Tevis was in a good mood tonight and the quiet was too oppressive.

She turned up the volume on the radio and grabbed Harry's hand. "Dance with me," she ordered.

"Dance with your husband!" Harry protested.

"He told me he doesn't dance."

"Well, neither do I!"

"I believe Severus," Tevis told him. "I don't believe you." Sputtering, Harry was pulled to his feet.

Tevis placed his arm around her waist and clasped his other hand. Harry tried, but the extent of his dancing experience was the one lesson Minerva McGonagall had given him and his fellow Gryffindors prior to the Yule Ball. And, of course, the ball itself.

The third time he stepped on her toe, Tevis said, "Ouch," good naturedly.

"Sorry," Harry muttered. "I tried to tell you."

"Oh for Heaven's sake, Potter!" Snape said, laying aside his work and standing up. "Unhand the girl before you permanently damage her."

Harry gladly handed Tevis over to Snape.

Severus enveloped Tevis in his arms and waltzed her around the room. Tevis laughed happily.

"You told me you couldn't dance!"

"No," he corrected. "I told you I _didn't_ dance, not that I couldn't."

Harry watched them as they circled the room. Snape was as elegant and smooth at this as he was everything else, and Harry wondered for the first time how he hadn't seen those qualities in Snape before. They made him kind of . . . sexy.

Finally, Snape swirled Tevis to a stop and returned to his books and parchment.

"That was awesome!" Tevis said enthusiastically. "Come on, Harry! I'll teach you the Macarena."

Once again protesting loudly, Harry was pulled to his feet. He wondered why he could never say no to this girl.

Snape watched them as Harry learned the dance moves, awkward as usual at anything physical that didn't include a flying broomstick and a tiny gold ball.

"I've just had an idea," Snape said. "I'll call the Dark Lord here. He'll see you doing those ridiculous gyrations, and he'll laugh himself right to death."

Harry sat down with a pout and refused to get up again.

##########

"So, I'll be leaving the day after tomorrow," Harry said one night at dinner.

"What? So soon?!" Tevis asked, suddenly losing her appetite.

"Yes. Mrs. Weasley wants to have a birthday party for me, so I'll be leaving for the Burrow on the thirty-first. Bill and Fleur are getting married on the first, and on the second, Ron and Hermione and I . . . are off."

"Is it safe for you at the Burrow?" Tevis asked.

"The Order has protected it, just like this place is protected. Plus, most of the Order will be there at the wedding. I wish you guys could come."

Tevis couldn't go even if her life weren't in danger, not if there would be a large crowd there. And with the Weasleys, that was a given. "And where are you going from there?"

"I'm not sure. We've talked about several places. We'll make our final decision just before we leave." It was important that no one know exactly where they were, and they intended to tell no one, not even Snape. "I expect we'll be moving around a lot, searching for the . . ." Harry stopped at Snape's warning look.

"For the horcruxes," Tevis finished. At their twin looks of alarm, Tevis said, "Don't worry. I have no idea what that even means. It's dangerous, I expect?"

"It will be, if Voldemort finds out what we're doing," Harry said honestly.

Tevis sighed. "I wish you could just stay here."

"I _have_ to go, Tevis. Or this will never end."

"Then you have to promise me you'll be careful."

"I will."

"And that you'll come back here from time to time to let us know you're safe."

"When it's not dangerous to do so, I will," he promised. "And I certainly plan to be here in September, for the baby."

"Good," Tevis said, rubbing her belly. "She'll want to meet her Uncle Harry right away."

##########

"I've been thinking about something," Tevis said to Snape as they got ready for bed that night.

"Oh?"

"Harry's leaving soon. He could be killed during his search."

"If he's careful, he should have a better than average chance of finding what he's after. But, yes, there are countless ways this could go wrong, and death is a possibility for all of them. They know this, and they're willing to accept the risk."

"But Harry could die never having experienced . . . he could die a virgin!"

"Potter is a virgin?" Snape asked, extremely surprised by this bit of intelligence. Being who he was, Potter could have had his pick of any of the students at Hogwarts, male or female, and Snape had assumed, apparently incorrectly, that Harry had availed himself of that opportunity at least once.

"Yes. That surprises you?"

"It does," Snape admitted.

"It shouldn't. Harry's not the type of guy to have sex with just anyone. He's very insecure about himself and his ability to be the person that everyone thinks he should be. He's lived a large part of his life in fear of disappointing people. He's never been able to establish a relationship with someone who sees him for who he is and not the scar on his forehead."

"_You _have that relationship with him," Snape pointed out.

Tevis sighed. "Yes, I do. And you do now, as well, I think. And that's why I was thinking . . ."

"Yes?"

"Before Harry goes, I'd like to . . . I don't want him to die never knowing . . . I know it's a little strange . . ."

"Tevis, what is it that you're trying to say?" Snape interrupted.

"I want to invite Harry into our bed," she said, then looked up at him to gauge his reaction.

"You . . . what?" Snape said, shocked.

Tevis was sure he'd heard her, so she didn't repeat herself. "For his birthday present. I don't know what else to get him," she joked.

"Let me get this straight. You want to have sex with Harry Potter. In our bed."

"You, too," she clarified. "I want to have sex with both of you. And I want him to have sex with both of us. That way, he gets to experience both a man and a woman. We'd talked about a threesome, remember? You liked the idea."

"As I told you, I've done this very thing more than once. But Potter . . .?"

"He likes you, Severus. I don't mean in that way, although I have seen him looking at you. More importantly, he respects you. You could teach him things. You wouldn't hurt him. And you could show him how to please another man."

Snape looked her in the eye. "Since I have found you, I have come to believe that intimacy is not a sporting event, and treating it as such demeans its participants."

"I'm not asking you to sell tickets. I'm just asking that we teach Harry a little about love. It's a one-time thing." She took his hand. "But if this makes you uncomfortable, we can just forget I ever brought it up."

"You seem to be conveniently forgetting one thing. You saw him – in your vision – as a forty-year old man. He is _not _going to die on this quest."

"I hadn't forgotten," Tevis admitted. "But I'd still like to do this for him. I'm not entirely sure I can explain why."

"Will you tell me what you saw in the vision you had pertaining to me?"

"No."

Snape looked away, frustrated with her continued refusal to share this with him. Then he turned his attention to her proposal. He'd had impersonal sex for no reason at all more times than he could count. But he'd discovered with Tevis that being intimate with someone you . . . cared for was far riskier on a spiritual level. Was he willing to risk part of his soul on Potter? He felt as though he'd already given a part of it away to Tevis, as though she'd made herself into his own personal horcrux (without the killing). Could he risk dividing his soul again?

"I . . . need some time to think about this."

"Of course," Tevis agreed.

But he'd already made up his mind. He would do it for all of the reasons she'd spelled out and also because he felt his own need for immortality. He'd gotten it with Tevis, and he'd do it again with Harry Potter.

When they awoke in the morning, he told her he was willing. "Thank you," she said. "I think this will be mean a lot to him."

##########

"We'll be celebrating your birthday tonight," Tevis told Harry at breakfast. "Is there anything special you'd like for dinner?"

"Your lasagna?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Anything you want," Tevis assured him. That would actually be easy since last time she'd made lasagna, she'd made two and frozen one for later use. All she had to do was defrost it and bake it and make him a cake.

The day passed quickly, though Tevis was trying to make it drag, wanting to delay Harry's departure as long as possible. Time was a sadistic bastard, wasn't it?

Harry ate appreciatively that night, knowing that he wouldn't have this treat for a while in all likelihood. After eating a piece of chocolate cake, he felt uncomfortably full and sat back in his chair, rubbing his stomach. Tevis ate a second piece of cake after having had two servings of lasagna.

"Merlin, Tevis!" Harry said. "Where do you put it all?"

"Hey, I'm eating for two!"

"Two hippogriffs?" Harry joked.

When Snape tried to hide his laugh, it came out as a snort instead. Tevis, emotions already at an overwhelming point, burst into tears, threw her napkin onto the table, jumped up and ran into the kitchen.

The two men sat and stared at each other for a moment. "Oops," Harry said.

"I think you'd better go and apologize," Snape suggested.

"Yeah."

Harry stood behind Tevis. "I'm sorry," he said helplessly. "I was only joking."

"Oh, Harry!" she said, turning to him and burying herself in his arms. "I don't want you to go!"

Harry held her tightly, making shushing noises of comfort in her ear. When Snape entered the kitchen, Harry widened his eyes imploringly. "Help me!" he mouthed.

Snape thought Harry was doing just fine on his own and waved a hand dismissively at him.

"We talked about this, Tevis," Harry said. "I _have _to go."

"I know. But I'm going to miss you!" she wailed.

"And I'll miss you, too." He pushed her away gently, far enough so that he could look into her face. "But I want the world to be a better place for your baby. So I have to go."

Tevis wiped at the tears on her face. "I know, Harry. I'm sorry I'm so emotional. Must be the hormones."

"Don't worry about it. And thank you for dinner. It was wonderful."

"You're very welcome," she assured him, sniffing loudly and getting herself back under control. She slanted a look at Snape. "We want to give you your present now. Although why I'd still want to after you insulted me, I'm not sure."

"I was only joking! I think you look beautiful."

"If you tell me I'm glowing, I'm going to punch you right in the nose," Tevis warned.

"No glowing," Harry promised. "And you didn't have to get me anything." How _had _they gotten him anything? None of them had gone any farther than the yard since Dumbledore's funeral.

"We haven't yet. It's not something we can wrap up for you. It's more of an . . . emotional gift."

Harry looked at her, confused. "I don't understand."

Tevis felt her cheeks begin to burn. This was a little uncomfortable to explain. She looked at Snape for help, but he only looked passively back at her. This was her idea, after all.

"I'd like you to . . . um . . . go in and take a shower while Severus and I clean up here. Then, you should . . . join us. In our bed."

Harry's bottom jaw fell open. "What? You want to . . . you want me to . . . What's going on here exactly?"

Tevis looked at Snape again, then back at Harry. "I know that you've never . . . been with anyone. Before you leave tomorrow, we want you to know how it feels. With a man _and _a woman. So you'll have that, in case . . ."

Harry stared at Tevis, then at Snape. "And you're willing to sleep with me, just like that?"

"Yes," Tevis confirmed.

When Snape didn't speak, Harry looked at him. Snape nodded his agreement.

"Wait a minute," Harry said. "This is . . . is this what they call a pity fuck?" Despite his words of seeming complaint, his cock twitched interestedly in his trousers.

"Harry, don't let your pride stand in the way of letting us give this gift to you," Tevis said, trying to soothe the emotion she'd seen jump into his eyes. "We want to do it, or we wouldn't have offered. Let that be enough."

"Oh, I'm pathetic and desperate enough not to turn you down. I just wanted you to know that I understand what this is. I should take a shower."

"Yes," Tevis said, relieved. Her heartbeat quickened just a bit at the thought of what they were about to do.

"And you should drink this," Snape said, finally contributing to the conversation. He removed a small bottle from the pocket of his shirt and handed it to Harry. "Drink it now, and by the time you need it, it will be at its most potent."

"What is it?" Harry asked, taking the bottle and eyeing the purple liquid contents.

"It is an aphrodisiac. And a muscle relaxant," Snape said, his eyes glittering.

Harry shivered. "Don't think I'll need the first. But here goes." He unstoppered the bottle, put it to his lips, and tipped it up, draining the contents.

"Now go take a nice long relaxing shower and meet us upstairs," Tevis instructed.

Harry left quickly, before his growing erection could embarrass him, and made his way up to the bathroom.

Tevis went out to the table for a load of dirty dishes and brought them to the sink. When she turned again, she found her husband standing directly behind her. He put his arms on either side of her, forcing her back against the edge of the sink, pressing his groin against her. She could feel his hardness, and he dipped his mouth down to hers, claiming her in a hungry kiss.

"You're really looking forward to this," Tevis noted, reaching down to stroke his cock through his jeans.

Snape growled deep in his throat.

"Me, too."

"Let me," Snape said, and with a single quick wave of his wand, the dishes began to rise off the table and wash themselves in the soapy water that had appeared instantly in the sink. After being dried, they put themselves away. While they were so engaged, Snape covered the leftover lasagna and put it into the refrigerator. The entire process took less than five minutes.

Tevis looked up at Snape appraisingly. He seemed very excited and eager to get upstairs. "Just how long have you wanted to fuck Harry?" she asked.

Snape growled again at her lewd language and trapped her in another kiss. "Let's wait for Potter upstairs," he suggested.

##########

Harry waited outside their bedroom door, a towel wrapped around his waist. He'd tried to tame his hair. Always in a state of rebellion, tonight it had staged an out-right coup. He'd finally given up, figuring it didn't matter any way. He then spent many minutes debating with himself whether or not to get dressed. Finally, he decided that he was stalling because he was nervous, and he left the bathroom.

He could hear Tevis and Snape talking softly to each other, and he almost turned around and went back downstairs. Was he really going to do this? Was he really going to have sex with one of his best friends and his former hated Potions professor? This was crazy! His cock was ready, but every other part of him had doubts about his own sanity.

Snape must have heard or maybe sensed Harry lurking in the hallway. "Potter, would you care to join us?" he invited.

Harry gathered his courage and stepped into the bedroom doorway. Not into the room, mind you – he could still escape if need be. Tevis and Snape were lying on the bed, facing each other, both still fully dressed.

Tevis sat up. "Harry! Come on in."

Harry hesitated for a moment before his feet took him slowly to the bed, and he sat on the edge, carefully keeping himself covered with the towel. Tevis came up behind him and ruffled his hair playfully. She put his arms around his neck and said, "I love your hair!" She kissed the top of his head and hugged him briefly. "Relax," she whispered warmly in his ear. "It's going to be okay." Then, louder, "Come and lie down."

Unable to look at either of them, Harry dragged himself up to the head of the bed and reclined against the pillows. Snape got off the bed and began to undress. Harry nearly whimpered in a mixture of fear and anticipation.

"May I?" Tevis asked, indicating his towel.

Harry looked at her, his eyes wild with nervousness, begging her for . . . something. Tevis stopped – clearly he was too afraid of what was to happen to enjoy any of it. She sat down on the bed next to him and leaned over to kiss him. Desperately, Harry kissed her back. He wanted this – he wanted her – he wanted Snape – he really did, but he was so afraid that he wouldn't be _good _at this, that he'd be found lacking in some way, that they'd be disappointed in him. And he loved both of them too much, wanted to please them too much, to disappoint them.

Tevis felt the tenseness in Harry's shoulders as she kissed him. She knew him well enough to know what he was anxious about, and it was up to her to make him feel better. She left his lips and trailed her mouth to his ear. "Relax, Harry," she whispered. "Everything's going to be fine." She placed one hand on his knee and felt him jump beneath her touch. "Shhhh," she gentled as her hand made its way up his thigh, stopping at his hip. "I'm going to touch you, Harry," she said, her breath moist.

"Oh God!" Harry moaned, closing his eyes and letting his head fall back.

"Do you want me to touch you, Harry?" she asked, kissing his neck.

The tent that had arisen under the towel told her that Harry did. "Yes, please."

"Do you want to watch me touch you?" she asked, placing a kiss on his shoulder.

"No."

"That's okay," she assured him. "Severus will watch for you."

And Severus _was _watching. He was surprised by Potter's jumpiness – the boy actually _was _a virgin – that much was obvious from his nervousness. But Tevis was doing a fine job of settling him down enough so that he wouldn't jump clean off the bed when anyone touched him intimately.

A shudder ran through Harry at her words, but he didn't open his eyes. Tevis reached over and undid the towel at Harry's waist. She parted the sides of the towel and revealed his body to her.

"Oh, Harry! You're beautiful!" she breathed. Tevis looked her fill, not even trying to pretend as though she wasn't drawn immediately to his male member, engorged and lying against his belly now that it was unfettered by his towel. His cock was shorter than Severus', but thicker around. She stroked one finger up the underside, causing Harry to gasp and twitch his entire body, as though he was having to force himself to stay in place. Tevis wrapped her hand around him, this time wringing a groan out of Harry, comparing his girth with that of her husband. She wondered if he would taste the same, if all men tasted the same, and she couldn't wait to find out.

"Careful," Snape warned. "He's got a long night in front of him. Don't make him come too early."

"Oh God!" Harry said again, and he opened his eyes half-way. The sight of Tevis' hand wrapped around his cock made him nearly lose control. But when he saw Snape, completely nude, as hard as Harry himself was and languidly stroking his own hardness as he watched his wife touching Harry, he snapped his eyes closed again because that sight alone was enough to make him come, right now, in all his embarrassing glory.

Tevis placed a quick kiss on the top of Harry's cock and released him. Snape sat on the edge of the bed while Tevis got off and began to undress.

"Potter . . ." Snape started.

Without opening his eyes, Harry said, "Harry." If they were gong to do this, he at least could use Harry's first name.

"Harry," Snape started again. "You will be with Tevis first. You will penetrate her, but not in the missionary position, due to her condition. She may perform oral sex on you first if she wishes. You may do the same to her, if you both wish. Once you are finished with her, you and I will engage in intercourse. You will penetrate me first, then I will penetrate you. You may perform oral sex on me if you wish to learn that technique."

Eyes still closed, Harry closed his hand into a fist, digging his nails into his palm to stop himself from giggling. Snape was laying this out as though it were a lesson plan, something he'd obviously put a lot of thought into, as though he were instructing him on how to make a potion, so dry and clinical. Harry hoped he was better at this than he was at potions. Although the danger of an explosion here was just as great as it was in the classroom. Harry gulped down his silly thoughts.

"Is this acceptable to you?" Snape asked.

Harry nodded, unable to speak.

"And where is that vaunted Gryffindor courage I've come to admire?" Snape continued, his voice soft and encouraging. "Will you keep your eyes closed the entire time?"

That _had _been Harry's plan, but he forced himself now to abandon it in favor of actually seeing what was happening around him – _to _him. He opened his eyes fully now and found himself looking at his former professor, nude on the bed beside him. "Oh God," he said again.

"Your vocabulary is quite limited tonight," Snape purred.

Harry nodded in agreement, unable to speak.

Tevis slid onto the bed next to him, and Harry looked at her. She was so beautiful. He wanted to touch her all over, but he didn't know where to start, so he reached out and touched her cheek.

Tevis took his hand and kissed his fingers. She touched his face in return, then leaned down to kiss him. He kissed her back, and she stretched out on the bed next to him. Harry began running his hands down her back and over her buttocks.

Tevis ran her hands over his chest, still kissing him passionately, and down his belly to his groin. She found his cock again, and he groaned into her mouth. Pulling away from his lips, Tevis scooted down and lay her head on his stomach. She reached up to stroke his cock. He was silky smooth, and she ran her hands up and down his length several times. Snape had crept closer and was now kissing and licking Harry's neck. Harry raised his hips up off the bed, wanting more.

Tevis gave it to him. Holding him still with her hand, she slid her mouth over him. Using techniques she'd been perfecting on her husband, she was able to get his entire length into her mouth. Up and down she went, rolling his balls in her fingers, his fingers laced into her hair, until he cried out, "Tevis!" in warning.

Tevis immediately pulled her mouth off him. "Not yet, hon," she said, and she joined him again at the head of the bed. She kissed him and he said, "Jesus, Tevis."

"Sorry, babe," she said sympathetically. "Soon. Go down on me, Harry."

Harry nearly came at this invitation, but instead he counted to ten slowly. When he finished, he looked over at Snape, now sitting cross-legged on the bed watching them. Harry nearly lost it again when he saw Snape was again fisting his own cock, his thumb running over the tip, smearing his pre-come. "Jesus," he muttered.

Snape closed his eyes, then opened them again and nodded at Harry.

Tevis arranged herself comfortably on the pillows. Harry ran a hand over one breast, worrying the nipple with his thumb. He replaced his hand with his mouth, gently sucking on a nipple. With his hand, he rolled the other nipple between a thumb and forefinger, pulling a moan from her throat.

"Do you like that?" he asked, looking up at her.

"Feels awesome," she breathed.

He did this a while longer before moving down and placing a gentle kiss on her big belly. After an affectionate pat there as well, he moved further down on the bed until he was between Tevis' legs, which she opened willingly for him.

"Have you done this before?" Snape asked, suddenly close.

"No," Harry confessed.

Snape came closer until he lay with his head resting on Tevis' thigh, his feet toward the head of the bed. Tevis looked down and was nearly overwhelmed with lust at seeing the two men she loved most in this world, their heads nearly touching, studiously examining her female parts. Needing something to distract herself, she reached over and began to stroke her husband's cock.

"You're looking for the clitoris," Snape instructed, "which is a woman's pleasure center." He reached in and separated Tevis' folds. Pearly white fluids ran copiously already. "Here," Snape said, placing one finger gently on her nub. Tevis gasped and shuddered.

"Be creative," Snape said, "but this is where you need to return eventually to bring her to orgasm. Proceed."

Snape withdrew, joining Tevis at the head of the bed, and Harry took his place. Tentatively, he extended his tongue and inserted it into her wetness. He lapped, he poked, he tasted. And when she was writhing nearly uncontrollably, he returned to the spot Snape had showed him and flicked it with his tongue until Tevis' legs straightened in orgasm, riding his tongue to ecstacy. When he tried to pull away, she forced him back until she'd finished.

She lay breathing heavily, staring up at the ceiling. "Now, Harry," she commanded.

Eagerly, Harry leapt up and crawled up her body, being careful not to rest too much of his weight on her. Snape grabbed him and kissed him, his tongue seeking out his wife's ejaculate from Harry's mouth. Surprised, Harry didn't respond for a moment until he began to return the kiss with matching ardor.

Snape was a surprisingly good kisser, Harry thought with that small part of his brain which remained detached – soft lips, yet demanding and thorough. Harry had never known that simply kissing someone could be so exciting.

When they finally broke apart, Snape said, "Go."

Snape moved Harry into the same position Tevis and Snape had used on their wedding night, which had quickly become one of Tevis' favorites. Tevis guided Harry into her, and Harry closed his eyes as her tight, wet tunnel closed around him. Snape lay at Harry's back, running his hands wherever there was exposed skin. Though Harry had worried he wouldn't know what to do, instinct took over, and he began to move inside her. He was so totally on edge that it took only four strokes before he cried, "I'm coming!" and he began to spill his seed as deep inside her as he could drive himself.

"Oh God! Oh God!" he groaned as he came inside her. "You are . . . so hot . . . so tight . . . Oh God!" And finally, he'd had enough, and his movements slowly stopped.

"That was incredible!" Harry said, kissing her shoulder.

"_You_ were incredible, Harry," Tevis said, feeding his need for praise and reassurance.

"Excuse me," Snape said, nosing his way down between Tevis' legs. Harry was still inside her, softening less quickly than normal due to the potion Snape had given him. Snape's tongue licked the portion of Harry's cock that protruded from Tevis, and a surprised Harry yelped and nearly pulled out, causing a rush of fluid to escape, which Snape proceeded to lap up. Snape found every drop of Harry's semen and coaxed it onto his tongue and down his throat, bringing Tevis to another climax in the process, her orgasm massaging the head of Harry's cock which remained lodged inside her.

Harry looked down at Snape's dark head, feeling his clever tongue, fascinated and aroused. "I don't think I've ever seen anything more erotic," he said when Snape had finished.

"Forgive me, but your experience is limited, is it not?" Snape pointed out.

"You should see what he can do with his nose," Tevis said thickly, sated anew.

They lay on the bed together, catching their breath, and Harry allowed himself finally to examine Snape. The older man's long, lean body was fascinating. His penis, also long and lean in its half-ready state, drew Harry's attention. He'd seen naked blokes before, but he'd never been able to grab more than a quick peek, afraid of being caught in his curiosity. Now he could look all he wanted, and he found he _really _wanted.

"Have you even so much as kissed a man?"Snape asked, enjoying the scrutiny.

Harry shook his head in the negative. "Not until tonight."

"Then we start from the beginning. Did you wish to learn oral technique?"

Harry nodded, suddenly finding himself unable to speak again. He almost said, "Oh God" but checked himself just in time.

"Begin," Snape instructed.

Eager enough, Harry propped himself up on an elbow and studied Snape's cock, which twitched under his examination. Harry reached out and took Snape's member into his hand. It began to grow harder, but didn't gain much in diameter. Harry lowered his head to Snape's dick and sucked the end into his mouth. Copying what Tevis had done to him moments before, Harry bobbed up and down on Snape's cock. He tightened the suction, then loosened it, then he swirled his tongue around the head. In and out, up and down. Tevis moved closer to kiss Snape while Harry worked on him.

"Do you wish to swallow it?" Snape asked, his breath coming faster. Watching Harry and Tevis together had excited him considerably, and he wouldn't last long under Harry's inexpert but enthusiastic ministrations.

"Yes," Harry moaned. "Give it to me. Give it _all _to me."

And a few short strokes later, Snape did. Harry's throat worked convulsively to swallow it all down except for the last couple of spurts, which he held in his mouth. When Snape was finished twitching, Harry crawled to Tevis and thrust his tongue into her mouth, sharing Snape's seed with her. Tevis then turned and shared it with Snape. And this all served to get Harry rock hard once again.

"That was very well done for a first time," Snape praised. "Do you know what frottage is, Harry?"

Harry swallowed. He didn't, but he was pretty sure it was something he'd like. He shook his head.

"Come here," Snape directed.

Harry did, and Snape pulled him atop his own body. Harry's cock was trapped between them, and he gasped at the pressure.

"Frottage is the act of obtaining sexual stimulation by rubbing against a person or object," Snape said as Harry began to do that very thing. "Some men, who for whatever reason don't like penetration, find that frottage can be just as satisfying, especially when both men are equally aroused. The same stimulation can be found standing up, as well. But now," Snape said, pushing Harry off of him before he came again, "we must discuss penetration."

Harry whimpered.

"With penetration, preparation is very important," Snape instructed, "or the experience will be more painful than pleasant. Tevis is particularly skilled at this, so perhaps she'd be willing to demonstrate."

"I'd love to," Tevis said sincerely.

Snape positioned himself on his hands and knees on the bed, and Tevis knelt behind him. She showed Harry how, by using her tongue, then one finger, then two, she readied Snape's anus for entry. She summoned lubricant from the nearby night table and smeared it onto Harry's cock.

"Okay, you here now," Tevis said, indicating the spot behind Snape which she currently occupied. Harry knelt behind Snape and stroked his buttocks. He then lubed up his fingers and inserted them as Tevis had showed him. He could tell Snape was ready, but he wanted to do this anyway. He could use the practice, right?

"Now, Potter!" Snape snarled.

Harry laughed at his impatience and positioned his cock head at the entrance to Snape's tunnel. Snape pushed back against him, wanting him to hurry. Placing a steadying hand on Snape's rump, he pushed past the initial ring of muscle and slid into Snape all the way to his balls.

"Merlin!" Harry breathed. Snape was even tighter than Tevis had been. Harry could feel Snape surrounding him, squeezing him, massaging him, and he stayed still, enjoying the feeling.

"Move," Snape growled.

Harry sighed, but did as he'd been told. He pulled away from Snape, nearly all the way out then plunged back in. He liked this rhythm and wanted to maintain it for a while, but that proved impossible, and he soon found himself slamming heatedly into Snape's arse, his balls slapping against Snape's.

Tevis took Harry's hand and guided it to Snape's cock, and he wrapped his hand around Snape's rigid member, using his momentum in Snape's arse to drive Snape's cock through his fist.

"OhJesushereIcomeagain!" Harry howled, and he ejaculated into Snape's heat, crying out loudly as he did so, wishing this could never end. But it did, all too soon, as Snape collapsed beneath him suddenly, pulling Harry's cock free.

"You didn't . . ." Harry complained. He hadn't brought Snape to orgasm before losing himself.

"I will," Snape assured him. "Hands and knees, Potter."

"Oh boy!" Harry said eagerly, and he assumed the position.

"Would you like Tevis to . . .?"

"Yes please!"

Tevis moved in and treated Harry to the same preparation she'd given Snape. He was squirming and panting by the time she'd finished.

"He's ready," she told Snape.

Snape opened the lubricant and began to rub it slowly, languorously on himself, then onto and into Harry.

"This is going to hurt," Snape said quietly. "Your first time, there's no way to avoid it. The potion will help some, but not completely. Are you sure you want this?"

Harry gulped, but he was sure. "Yes, please." He had to have his first time sometime, right? What better time than now, on the brink of a dangerous quest, with these people, whom he trusted implicitly? And he was thankful that Snape was more endowed with length than width.

Snape gently and slowly pushed just the head of his prick inside Harry's virgin arsehole. He stopped, letting Harry grow accustomed to the burning stretch. "All right?"

"Yes," Harry gasped. "More."

"Push back against me. Slowly." Snape gave him more, slowly feeding his entire length in until he was resting against Harry's buttocks. Harry whimpered, and Snape stilled.

"Should I stop?"

"God, no!" Harry said. "It feels . . . incredible. Just give me a moment."

"There's something I didn't tell you, when you were doing this to me before," Snape said, his voice velvet. "I wanted to save something as a surprise. Many men think bottoming is a disgrace, something unpleasant to be borne only when absolutely necessary. They've never been fucked by someone who knows what they're doing."

"Oh God!" Harry said. "It makes me so hot when you say 'fuck'! How could it get any better?" He moved his hips back and forth experimentally since Snape showed no sign of moving.

Snape withdrew slowly, making Harry gasp again. "Sweet Jesus!"

"You have a prostate, Harry, as do all males. What it does is not important right now. What is important for you to know is that when touched from the inside," Snape pushed back in a little faster than he'd pulled out, "it can be just as stimulating as a woman's clitoris." Out again, slowly. "Sometimes the angle has to be adjusted," back in after a slight change in the angle of his thrust, "to find the right spot."

"Fuck!" Harry shouted as his eyes rolled up into his head.

Snape smiled. "But when you hit it, you'll know." And now that he knew, he aimed deliberately, battering Harry's prostate with thrust after thrust, in an ever-quickening rhythm, until Harry thought he might lose his mind.

Snape reached around and took hold of Harry's leaking cock. Tevis, wondering if Harry would feel the electric thrill if they touched him together, overlapped her hand on Harry's cock. Harry did feel it, and he screamed as he released himself for the third time after one more prodding of that sweet spot inside by Snape's long prick. Feeling Harry's pulsing orgasm on his own cock, Snape let loose as well, spilling his seed into Harry until they collapsed in a pile.

"Holy shit," Harry said, panting. "That was . . . I can't even describe it."

"Have I spoiled you for women, Harry?" Snape asked arrogantly.

"I sure hope not," was Harry's earnest response.

It was some time before both men had caught their breath. When they did, Harry asked, "Should I go now?"

In response, Tevis settled herself between the two of them and summoned the covers from the floor where they'd fallen in the scrum. She kissed Harry, then Snape. "Good night."

"Thank you," Harry said softly, to both of them.

"Happy Birthday, Potter," Snape said, and he extinguished the lights and closed his eyes, exhausted.

Harry snuggled close to Tevis, closed his eyes, and was asleep instantly.

##########

Harry woke slowly, staring up at the ceiling. He rolled to his side, realized he was naked, and groaned as the ache in his bum reminded him of the activities he'd engaged in last night. As soon as he rolled, his eyes met Tevis'. They were alone.

She smiled. "Good morning."

"Morning," he said, smiling back.

"Sore?"

"A little," he admitted. "What time is it?"

"Seven or so."

"Where's Severus?"

"He's been up for a couple of hours. He's usually up at five. Rather annoying habit, actually."

"Thank you for last night," Harry said shyly. "It was incredible."

"You're welcome."

Harry propped himself up on an elbow. "Why'd you do it? You and I both know that I'm going to live to see forty. So why'd you do it?"

Tevis looked into his eyes. "I wanted to," she confessed. "I have for a while. I guess I was curious. And I didn't want you to forget me when you go."

Harry snorted. "Like that would ever happen! So why did Severus do it?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure. Maybe because _he_ wanted to, too. Maybe because I asked him to. I don't know. Was he right? Did he spoil you for women?"

Harry sighed. "I don't know. Being with you was nice in a different way than it was with him. You were soft and warm and . . . safe. He was hard and lean and dangerous. Which was . . . very exciting. Not that you weren't exciting, too," Harry hurriedly added, worried he'd given offense.

"It's okay," she assured him. "I could tell you liked it. But it looked like you enjoyed Severus more. He _is_ something!"

Harry wasn't ready to concede that he liked men more than women, not yet. "Maybe. Maybe you and I should . . . have another go so I can have more data to compare."

Tevis smiled. "Nice try, Harry. You must need to pack."

"I do," he admitted. "Listen, I need you to distract Severus for a while this morning. There's some place I need to go, and I'm afraid he'll refuse to let me."

"Where are you going, Harry?" Tevis asked, sitting up, concerned, heedless of the fact that she bared her breasts to him when she did so.

"Relax. I'm going to Hogwarts. I'll use my cloak. I should only be gone an hour or so."

"But why?"

"There's something I need there. You'll see later."

"You'll be careful?"

"Very," he promised.

"Okay. Hurry back."

##########

The time for leaving had come, and Tevis found herself close to tears, despite her intention to be strong.

"Before I go," Harry said, "there's something I want you to have." He handed Snape a book-shaped parcel wrapped in plain brown paper.

"What is this?" Snape asked, turning it over in his hands.

"Open it," Harry suggested.

Snape removed the wrapping and held in his hands the book he'd thought he'd lost a long time ago – his very marked-up copy of _Advanced Potion Making_.

"Harry, I . . . how did you get this back?"

"That's not important. You needed it. And I needed to give it to you. To thank you. For everything."

Snape looked at him, nearly overcome with emotion. "I . . . thank you. This means a lot to me."

"I know," Harry said softly. "I've got to go now."

Snape surprised them all by grabbing Harry up into a fierce hug. "You _will_ take care of yourself," he growled into Harry's ear. "And you _will_ come to me if I can help in any way."

Almost unable to breathe, Harry gulped, "I will."

Just as abruptly as he'd grabbed him, Snape let Harry go, turned on his heel, and strode from the room.

Harry turned and hugged Tevis. "Take care of him," he muttered.

"You know I will," she assured him. She pulled away from him enough to rest her forehead against his. "Harry, I love you. Come back to me soon."

"I love you, too. And I _will_ see you soon."

##########

The following day, a stunned Snape told Tevis, "The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. Death Eaters infiltrated the wedding at the Weasley residence."

"Harry?!" Tevis asked.

"They were given warning. He and Weasley and Granger apparated away before the Death Eaters arrived. At this moment, no one knows where they are."

"Oh Severus!" Tevis said, rushing into his arms.

##########

Early September brought cooler temperatures to Godric's Hollow. Snape and Tevis had settled into a routine. After breakfast, Snape disappeared into his potions lab in the basement, and Tevis set to work on the lessons Snape set for her. Considering that she should be in her seventh and NEWT year at Hogwarts, he had insisted. She didn't mind – she liked learning, and Snape instructed her on things she'd never learn at school (as well as those things she _should _have learned at school).

After lunch, they spent a couple of hours together in the garden, weeding and harvesting. They'd planted vegetables and herbs and hit them with quick grow spells, so there was always something that needed tending.

Tevis then would lay down for an hour or so, at Snape's insistence, while he worked on his potions textbook. When she got up, Tevis would fix supper. After they ate and cleaned up, Tevis would play, the guitar or the piano, while Snape read. They were getting along surprisingly well. Tevis had the nice, quiet life she'd always longed to have, and Snape actually seemed happy at times.

Their only contact with the outside world was through Arthur and/or Molly Weasley. It was the Weasleys who brought them their groceries and necessities and their news. They'd been told that Harry and his friends had made it safely to Grimmauld Place after leaving the wedding. Tevis thought of them several times a day and mentioned them often. Mad-Eye Moody had been killed in a skirmish with Death Eaters the day the Ministry fell. Voldemort and his supporters had taken over the Ministry and were instigating widespread changes in policy. Mistrust and suspicion were the order of the day.

None of this touched the Snapes in their secluded little corner of the world. Every time Molly Weasley visited, she brought something for the baby – clothes that had belonged to Ginny, baby blankets, even a cradle. Tevis was grateful for her support – the baby was due soon, and she was beginning to get nervous about the delivery. Childbirth _hurt_ she'd been given to understand.

One afternoon, Tevis sat on the ground in the garden weeding onions. She felt and heard Snape move up behind her.

"Would you have any interest in going upstairs with me?" he asked, rather nervously. The fact that this beautiful young thing was willing to regularly have sex with him still amazed him. He'd always let her take the lead, though, afraid of the rejection he was sure he'd experience if he approached her. As much as he might be able to understand that choice, it would hurt deeply. It had taken some time for him to work up the courage to approach her.

Tevis smiled up at him. "Why, Mr. Snape, whatever would we do up there?" she asked, coyly batting her eyelashes at him.

"I have some ideas," he admitted, extending his hand to her.

She took his hand, and he pulled her to her feet.

Tevis was dirty and sweaty. "Just let me get cleaned up," she said.

"No," Snape said firmly. "I want you like this." He'd take her here if he wasn't worried that someone would choose that moment to apparate in just beyond the garden gate.

"Okay," she said simply. Still holding his hand, she followed him into the house and up the stairs.

Afterward, they lay together, sleepy and happy.

"The baby is due in two weeks," Snape said, stroking her belly.

"Mm hmm," Tevis agreed.

"One day soon, I'm going to go into the city and look for a safe place to move you, closer to the hospital, until the baby comes."

"Do you think that's necessary?"

"I'd feel better if you were close to medical assistance, should it be required."

"Is it safe for you to leave here?" she asked, concerned.

"I'll be careful. I'll try to get someone to come and stay with you while I'm gone."

"I'll be fine. No one can get to me here. And you won't be gone long, right?"

He kissed her forehead. "I'd feel better if someone was here. Why don't you rest? I'll fix dinner."

##########

Harry apparated to the spot just outside the garden gate. He was paying Tevis and Snape his first visit since leaving on his birthday. The baby wasn't due for another week, but he'd missed his friends and had popped over for a quick visit. Since he and Ron and Hermione had infiltrated the Ministry, he'd been wanting to talk to Snape about all they'd done and learned. He thought they'd be better able to talk without the fuss of a new baby, hence his early visit. He planned to return next week, as well, for the birth. He'd invited Ron and Hermione along, but Ron, still recovering from his recent splinching, had been reluctant, and Hermione hadn't wanted to leave him. They'd both urged him to come, though, and here he was. He'd promised to bring food back with him.

Harry admired the neat rows in the garden as he crossed through it. It was obviously well-tended, and he was pleased to see the Snapes were making themselves at home here.

The house was eerily silent as he pushed his way through the front door. "Tevis? Severus?" he called down into the lab.

"Anyone here?" he called as he moved into the sitting room. He wouldn't want to surprise them _in flagrante delicto_. Well, he actually would, but it wouldn't do to appear eager for that, right?

"Harry?!" he heard Tevis call from upstairs. "Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me," he said, relieved to finally find the house occupied.

"Oh thank God you're here!" Tevis sobbed. The sound of her distress made Harry bound up the stairs two at a time, pulling his wand out as he ran. He entered the bedroom cautiously, ready to neutralize whatever might be threatening Tevis.

But she was alone. Lying on the bed. Looking scared and in pain. Harry's arm dropped. "Tevis! What's wrong?"

"My water broke!" she told him, fear in her eyes. "I'm in labor."

"Where's Severus?"

"He's gone into London. He wanted to move some place closer to the hospital so that when the baby came . . ." Tevis stopped talking, gritted her teeth, and huffed her way through a contraction. When it passed, she said, "Man, that hurts!"

This couldn't be happening! Harry stood numbly beside the bed. "But the baby's not due for another week! You can't be having it now!"

"Maybe you could find a really small owl and send it up there with a note, because I'm pretty sure she doesn't care when she's _supposed _to come! She's coming today! Now!"

"Oh God!" Harry said. "What should I do?"

"I don't know. I've never had a baby before!"

"Me either," Harry noted. "When is Severus due back?"

"I expected him by now. He should be back any minute."

"And there's no way to contact him," Harry thought out loud. "And we're not connected to the floo network. And we have a telephone, but anyone we'd want to contact doesn't. Tevis, I have to go for help!"

"No, Harry!" she cried desperately. "Don't leave me! I don't want to have this baby alone!" She clutched at his sleeve as another contraction overtook her. "They're getting really close together. Harry, I think she's coming soon!"

Panic began to set in. Harry knew nothing about how babies were born – what was he supposed to do? "Tevis, I don't have a clue what to do!" he confessed helplessly.

"We'll need some towels. And some warm water," Tevis panted. "And I could really use some water. Or maybe some ice chips. Can you get those things?"

"Yes!" Harry said, glad to have something concrete to do. "Will you be all right for a minute?"

"I'll be fine. Go!" she ordered.

Harry pounded back down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Oh damn oh damn oh damn!" he muttered over and over to himself as he filled a basin with warm water and rummaged in the freezer for some ice, which he promptly dropped on the floor when Severus came through the back door.

"Oh thank Merlin!" Harry said, and he threw his arms around Snape. "Thank Merlin you're here!"

Reflexively, Snape hugged him back. "Potter! What are you doing here? What's wrong?"

Harry stepped back. "Tevis – she's having the baby."

"What?! Now?! But she's not due . . ."

"I pointed that out to her. It didn't seem to dissuade her in the least," Harry said, skipping to the sink to remove the basin which had begun to overflow. "She sent me down here for warm water and towels and ice."

"Bring them up," Snape ordered as he swept from the room.

"Severus!" Tevis cried when Snape entered the room. "You're home!" Tears of relief flooded her eyes.

"Yes, love. I'm home. How far apart are the contractions?"

Tevis had been trying to time them. "About a minute, I think." And as she said it, another one rolled through her, causing her to cry out. "And they're getting stronger!" she said when she could speak again.

Harry entered the room, sloshing water from the basin in his hurry, a cup of ice tucked under his arm.

"Your water broke I see," Snape noted, taking in the dampened bed sheets.

"Yes. Severus, I'm scared!"

Snape took her hand and patted it soothingly. "It's going to be all right, my dear. I will take care of you." He hoped he sounded reassuring because he was anything but confident about his ability to do this. He'd read many books about childbirth in recent weeks, because his motto was you could never be too prepared, but he'd never thought he'd actually have to handle it himself, and the prospect was daunting.

"Harry, have you your cloak with you?" he asked.

"No." He'd left it with Ron and Hermione, just in case.

Snape pulled Harry away from the bed. "One of us needs to get word to Minerva. Poppy will come. I can go . . ."

"No!" Harry said immediately. "You stay here. I'll apparate to the Burrow and floo call McGonagall's office."

Snape nodded. "Be careful. And get back here as quickly as you can."

Harry nodded his understanding and went to the head of the bed. He took Tevis' hand, and she immediately squeezed his in a death grip, fighting for control through a contraction. "I'm going to get help," he told her, placing an ice chip into her mouth. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"No!" she choked out. "Don't go!"

"I have to, Sweetheart. But I'll be back in just a few minutes." He pulled his hand from hers and ran from the room.

"Let's get you undressed," Snape said gently, and he helped her to remove her pants and underwear. He performed a drying spell on the sheets beneath her, then covered her with a sheet. They paused twice when contractions hit. They were definitely coming fast and furious now, with one barely letting up before the next one began. Snape thought this must be much like cruciatus – with less time to keep on top of it, recovering from the bouts of pain became much harder, until the pain was controlling you, leaving nothing but the promise of more pain to come.

Snape got her situated as comfortably as he could, then bent her knees up to take a look. She was certainly dilated, though how much he wouldn't like to guess. He had no experience to help him, but he very much thought the child would be here within the hour. Please, Merlin, let Poppy Pomfrey have fleet feet.

Snape re-covered Tevis and sat on the bed with her, taking her hand in his. "Is there anything I can get for you?"

Tevis grimaced and squeezed his hand. "I don't think I can do this!" she panted. "It hurts so much!"

"I know, love. I'm sorry. If I could take away the pain . . ."

"A potion?" she asked through gritted teeth as once again her internal organs were crushed by a red hot hand, squeezing mercilessly until she felt as though everything would burst.

"I'm afraid it's too late," he admitted, wiping the sweat from her brow with one of the towels Harry had brought in. Any of the potions that assisted with childbirth had to be administered early in labor. She was too far along – they would only hinder the process now.

Harry burst back into the room. "She's coming! Madam Pomfrey is coming!" he said, breathing heavily. "Professor McGonagall was in her office, thankfully, and she sent her patronus to the hospital wing. She'll be here as soon as she can get off school grounds and apparate!"

Harry looked at Tevis on the bed. "How is she?"

"She's having a baby, Potter!" Snape snapped. "She's in pain! Come sit by her."

Harry did as he was told.

"Help her breathe through the contractions," Snape instructed.

Harry didn't ask how. He'd seen enough television to know how to do that silly huffing breathing thing people did when someone was having a baby. So he did it with Tevis now, too afraid to feel stupid, sure there was no way it could help.

Tevis seemed to be experiencing one continuous contraction now. She tried to breathe with Harry, but the pain was so intense, it was impossible to think. She needed it to stop. Now. She needed this creature out of her body. How had she ever thought she could do this? She was too weak, too cowardly.

"I can't do this!" she moaned, knowing even as she said it that even if she decided to give up, her body wouldn't quit until it had expelled the foreigner inside, with or without her active assistance.

From between her legs, Snape said, "I think it won't be long now." Indeed in the brief time since he'd last looked, her cervical opening had doubled in diameter. Where the hell was Poppy?!

"Trying laying on your side," Snape suggested.

Torturously, Tevis rolled onto her side. While Harry held her hand and mopped her forehead and muttered soothing nonsense words, Snape rubbed her back in slow circles. It seemed to help for a time until Tevis returned violently to her back, her legs spreading, the primal need to push this thing out too strong to ignore.

"No pushing!" Snape ordered. Not yet. Not until Poppy was here.

"Fuck you, Severus Snape," Tevis growled as she drew her knees up and pushed with every ounce of strength she had. She _had_ to – if she didn't, she was quite sure she'd die.

Snape dove down between her legs again. Dammit! The baby was crowing! "I can see the head, Tevis," he said, trying to sound a lot more calm than he felt. "She's coming now." Harry turned white at this news, and Snape growled, "Potter, if you pass out, I'll hex you into next week."

Tevis screamed with agony and pushed again as Madam Pomfrey bustled into the room. "Well! We're having a baby, I hear."

No one had heard her arrive. Hopefully Voldemort didn't discover their whereabouts at this moment because he'd likely be able to walk right in and eliminate them all.

Snape moved away so Madam Pomfrey could assess the situation. "Looks like we really are having a baby," she announced delightedly. "Severus, she needs to scoot her bum down here to the edge of the bed. Help her do that."

It was painful work, but Tevis was finally moved to the end of the bed, her knees up.

"Harry, sit behind her, help her into a sitting position." While she talked, Madam Pomfrey had opened her bag and was rummaging around in it, removing instruments and laying them on a clean towel on the floor. She conjured a large plastic tub and set it on the floor under Tevis' feet.

Harry crawled into position behind Tevis, holding her upright.

"All right. Severus, I want you to help her push for a ten-count. Honey, are you ready to have this baby?"

Tevis nodded vigorously. Snape sat beside her, clutching her hand.

"When I give the word, I want you to lean forward and grab your knees and push for all you're worth to the count of ten. Ready? Go!"

Tevis sat forward, Harry pushing against her back to assist, and grabbed her knees. Glad to finally be able to do something, she pushed with everything she had. She felt as though something broke loose inside her, and she hoped that was it. She was wrong.

After Snape said, "Ten," Tevis leaned back against Harry, panting, and he wiped her forehead again with an encouraging smile.

"That was wonderful," Poppy said . "Now we're going to do it again when I say go."

And they did, three more ten-counts until Madam Pomfrey said, "I've got the head. Now this next one is very important. We've got to get her shoulders out. I want you to push as hard as you can until I say stop."

Feeling the burn of the baby's head stretching her beyond all reason, Tevis wanted this over with more than she'd ever wanted anything, and she prepared herself. When the nurse gave the word, she pushed. And pushed. And finally, she felt the small life within her break free with a whoosh and a slide.

"Here we go!" Madam Pomfrey cried out as she caught the baby expertly. Using her wand, she cut the baby's umbilical cord and performed a cleaning charm on her, then wrapped her in a clean towel.

Laughing and crying and shaking, Tevis stretched her arms out toward her baby, and Madam Pomfrey gave the screaming infant to her mother. And Tevis saw it – the vision of her daughter, a fully grown woman, in a graduation cap and gown.

"Let's just finish up here," Poppy said, and with one more, much less fierce contraction, the afterbirth was expelled into the plastic tub, where it instantly vanished.

Tevis looked down at her perfect baby, tears streaming down her face. Behind her, Harry thought this was probably the most gruesome yet wonderful thing he'd ever witnessed.

The baby's eyes were tightly shut, and she was screaming loudly. Tevis held her close, still crying as Madam Pomfrey performed a cleaning charm on Tevis then helped her to move back up onto the bed. Tevis' legs were shaking, and she couldn't seem to stop them until the nurse covered her with a magically warmed blanket. Now _that _was bliss_._

Tevis looked up and realized Snape had left the room. Where had he gone?

"She may be hungry, dear," the nurse pointed out. "Were you going to breast feed?"

"No. I have bottles . . ." Before she could finish the sentence, Snape reappeared holding a bottle full of formula, a baby blanket, and a nappy.

"Ah," Madam Pomfrey said. She took the baby from Tevis, ignoring the fact that the child was still screaming, and unwrapped her. She cleaned her, examined her quickly, then put the nappy on and wrapped her in the much softer blanket. She handed the baby back to Tevis, and Snape gave her the bottle. As soon as the nipple was inserted into her mouth, the baby began to suckle.

"Aww," Madam Pomfrey said. "What's her name, dear?"

"Saffron," Tevis said. "Saffron Harriet Snape." She looked up at Severus for approval. They'd never talked about names. He nodded once. Had he picked up on the connection, she wondered – Saffron was a yellow flower – Snape had brought her yellow flowers.

"Harriet?" Harry asked. "Really?"

"Yes. For you. For her Uncle Harry. For her godfather."

Harry was nearly pleased enough to cry, and he turned away from them all.

"Severus, would you like to hold her?" Tevis asked softly.

Snape looked down at both of them. "You two look very comfortable there. I'll just see Madam Pomfrey out."

Tevis told herself she was being silly, that the look in Severus' eyes couldn't mean what she'd thought it meant. Because he couldn't possibly be repulsed by the beautiful creature lying in her arms. She _couldn't _have seen that.

Saffron opened her eyes and looked up at her mother, and Tevis fell instantly, deeply, irrevocably, hopelessly in love.

"She's beautiful, dear," Madam Pomfrey said. "Goodness! I've never seen a baby with such dark eyes! They're usually born with blue eyes, you know."

It was true. Saffron's eyes were as dark as – well, as dark as her father's. "She has her father's eyes," Tevis said, looking up at Snape.

Snape's thin smile looked more like a grimace. "Poppy, I'm sure you must have things to get back to. We don't wish to keep you any longer than necessary." And it was obvious to everyone in the room that Snape couldn't wait to get out of there.

Snape escorted Poppy out, and Tevis could only watch them go. She was frightened by that glimpse of . . . whatever she'd seen in her husband's eyes. Unable to identify it, she wasn't sure how to combat it.

Tevis had been reading books, too, and she knew to feed the baby only a little before attempting to burp her. She raised the little bundle to her shoulder and began patting her back briskly, trying not to cry.

"Harry, there are baby clothes in the bottom drawer," she said, her voice shaking. "Could you get me something to dress her in?"

"Sure," Harry said. He sorted through the baby things Molly Weasley had donated until he found a pastel green outfit with an embroidered lion on the front. "Ha! Look at this!"

Tevis smiled. "Thanks."

Saffron burped and spit up on Tevis' shoulder. Tevis magicked it away without her wand, then tried to feed Saffron more. When it became apparent that she wasn't interested in further sustenance, Tevis lay her on the bed and unwrapped her daughter. She looked her over from head to toe. "She's perfect," Tevis breathed. Saffron's black eyes looked back at her. "Her fingers and toes are so tiny!"

"Thank goodness she doesn't have her father's nose," Harry noted.

At the mention of Snape, a little of the joy left her. "Did you see the way he looked at her?" she asked, hoping she'd been mistaken, or imaging things, or anything. She kept her eyes on Saffron as she inexpertly tried to thread the frail-seeming limbs into the proper places in the outfit Harry had picked out.

"What look?" Harry asked, far too innocently, which told Tevis Harry had seen it, too. Which meant she hadn't imagined it.

"Oh, Harry! He looked . . . disgusted with her! How could he?! She's so beautiful! And if he had any doubt that she was his – just look at those eyes!" The tears were starting again.

Harry looked down at the baby. Truthfully, he didn't think she looked all that beautiful – she was red and splotchy and wrinkly. And although he might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, he knew better than to voice that thought. But she was the product of two of the people he loved best in the world, and by extension, she was part of Harry's family. And he _had_ seen the way Snape looked at the helpless creature and had no explanation for it, either. "I don't know," he said helplessly. "Just – give him time, I guess."

"Would you like to hold her?" Tevis offered, sniffing away her tears.

"I've . . . never held a baby before."

"She won't break." Tevis scooped Saffron off the bed. "Just support her head and neck." Awkwardly, she transferred the tiny bundle into Harry's arms.

Harry looked down at her and was startled to see Snape's eyes boring back into his own. "Holy – she's got the stare down already! I wonder if she can sneer!"

Harry extended his index finger and touched her little fist. Saffron opened her hand and grabbed hold of Harry's finger. Harry couldn't help but smile and become the second victim to succumb to the tiny child's charms. So maybe she _was _just a little bit beautiful.

"Wow," he said, only able to articulate the one syllable. Her black stare went straight to his heart, and he felt emotion welling up inside him. He had to clear his throat before he could speak. "Hello, Saffron," he whispered. "I'm your Uncle Harry." He raised her little fist up and down. "I'm very pleased to meet you."

Saffron, much like her father, looked wholly unimpressed.

Snape re-entered the room and stared at Harry holding his daughter. "Poppy's gone," he finally said.

"Would you like to hold her?" Tevis asked hopefully.

"Let Potter hold her," Snape said. "I imagine he needs to be getting back soon. I've all the time in the world." He sat on the bed beside Tevis, his back to Harry and Saffron, and took her hand between both of his. "I just wanted to tell you how . . . proud I am of what you've done. I know that was difficult, and you were simply . . . heroic."

"It was all worth it," she assured him, her eyes flitting to her daughter.

Snape shifted uncomfortably. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

_You can pretend you care about your daughter!_ she wanted to scream, but she shook her head, not sure she could speak without breaking down.

Snape stood up. "I will bring lunch up in a little while. You should try to get some sleep if you can. If you need a pain potion, let me know."

Tevis nodded.

"Potter, when you're finished up here, come downstairs. I'm sure you have much to tell me."

"Yes, sir," Harry agreed.

Snape swept from the room without a backward glance at anyone.

As soon as she was sure he was downstairs, Tevis whispered, "He hates her!"

"No!" Harry protested, looking down at Saffron, whose eyes were now closed. "Maybe he just needs time to adjust to the idea. Do you want me to talk to him?"

"No," she said quickly. "That would probably just make things worse."

Harry tended to agree with that. "I think she's asleep."

Tevis hovered the cradle so that it rested at her bedside. "You can put her down here."

Harry knelt by the cradle and bent to place Saffron into it. "On her back, or her tummy?"

"Back," Tevis instructed.

Gingerly, Harry put the sleeping angel down, then covered her with a blanket Tevis passed to him.

"You should go down now," Tevis suggested. "I'm going to try to sleep. Please come and say good-bye before you go."

"I will," Harry promised. He bent down and kissed her forehead. "You were brilliant."

"Thank you. For being here. It helped."

Harry smiled in return and left her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Worth Waiting For**

by warviben

**Summary**: A student new to Hogwarts will change Snape's and Harry's lives in ways they could never have imagined.

**Warnings**: This fic contains detailed descriptions of sexual encounters. Some of them are hetero- and some are male/male/female. If this type of thing is not for you, I suggest you stop reading now.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters (well, most of them anyway). If you're reading this, you likely know that.

_From Chapter 5:_

_ As soon as she was sure he was downstairs, Tevis whispered, "He hates her!"_

_ "No!" Harry protested, looking down at Saffron, whose eyes were now closed. "Maybe he just needs time to adjust to the idea. Do you want me to talk to him?"_

_ "No," she said quickly. "That would probably just make things worse."_

_ Harry tended to agree with that. "I think she's asleep."_

_ Tevis hovered the cradle so that it rested at her bedside. "You can put her down here."_

_ Harry knelt by the cradle and bent to place Saffron into it. "On her back, or her tummy?"_

_ "Back," Tevis instructed._

_ Gingerly, Harry put the sleeping angel down, then covered her with a blanket Tevis passed to him._

_ "You should go down now," Tevis suggested. "I'm going to try to sleep. Please come and say good-bye before you go."_

_ "I will," Harry promised. He bent down and kissed her forehead. "You were brilliant."_

_ "Thank you. For being here. It helped."_

_ Harry smiled in return and left her._

##########

Chapter 6

Harry found Snape in the kitchen, sitting at the table, a cup of tea sitting untouched before him.

"Um . . . congratulations," Harry offered tentatively.

"Sit," Snape said gruffly. "There is tea. And I believe there is leftover cake."

Harry was hungry, and he helped himself to a large piece of cake and a cup of tea before sitting opposite Snape. He shoveled in large pieces of cake greedily before even attempting to update Snape.

Snape raised an eyebrow at his gluttony. "Hungry?"

"Well, regular opportunities to eat haven't exactly presented themselves," he said, slurping down the last of his tea. He got up and poured himself another cup, thought about another piece of cake and decided against it, for now anyway, and sat back down.

"Talk," Snape said.

And Harry did. He told Snape about the wedding and how they'd apparated to Tottenham Court Road, only to be found almost immediately by Death Eaters. He told how they'd decided to go to Grimmauld Place and pieced together the identity of RAB and learned from Kreacher who had placed the fake locket in the basin in the cave and how that sneakthief Mundungus Fletcher had stolen it.

"So I sent Kreacher after him, and a few days later, they showed up at Grimmauld Place. Fletcher told us he'd sold the locket, and you'll never guess _who _he sold it to. That evil bitch-toad Dolores Umbridge!"

"Tell me how you _really _feel about her," Snape quipped.

Harry ignored him. "So we started taking turns watching the Ministry. We identified three who could be counted on to arrive at the same time every day. So we . . . took their places and went inside the Ministry."

"No no no," Snape said, stopping him when it appeared Harry was going to skip the details. "Took their places how?"

"Polyjuice potion," Harry explained. "We incapacitated them, stole some hairs and . . . went in."

Snape had not thought the three teenagers capable of thinking anything through that completely, and he was impressed. "That was . . . well thought out."

Harry was pleased by the praise, but the good feeling lasted only for a moment. "Well, it all went sideways once we got in. We got separated almost immediately. Hermione was taken down to the courtroom by Umbridge of all people. They were holding some farce of a hearing to determine blood status. It was disgusting. Dementors were patrolling around." Harry shuddered.

"Anyway," he continued, "while Umbridge was occupied, I searched her office for the locket. I didn't find it, but I did find Mad-Eye Moody's magical eye, embedded in her door. She was using it as a way to spy on the people who worked in her office. God! I think I hate that woman as much as I hate V–"

"Do not speak his name!" Snape hissed.

Harry looked annoyed but moved on. "Anyway, I couldn't leave it there. I took it, and it must have set off some kind of alarm. Suddenly, they knew we were there. I went back down for Hermione only to discover that the bitch was actually wearing the locket! Hermione managed to get it away from her during the confusion. We met up with Ron, and we apparated away. Or we tried to. Yaxley grabbed onto Hermione, and she brought him with her to Grimmauld Place. He let go once we got there, so she took us some place else. But now we can't go back there – because we let him in." Harry suddenly felt very young and scared at the memory of losing their one safe haven.

"So where are you staying now?" Snape asked softly.

"I think it better not to say. We're . . . camping out. Could be fun if Ron hadn't gotten splinched."

"Is Mr. Weasley all right?"

Harry ran a hand tiredly through his hair. "He's getting better. Hermione fixed him up. That's why they didn't come with me today. We didn't want to risk it so soon after . . ." Harry suddenly felt like crying, remembering his friend in pain. He was so tired and hungry, and he was tired of being tired and hungry all the time. What he wouldn't give to bring his friends here and just stay for a while!

Snape seemed to sense his emotion and sought to comfort him in his own way. "So you have the hor– the locket?"

Harry gulped down his feelings. "Yes."

"And you're sure it's real this time?"

"Oh, there's no doubt about that," Harry assured him, remembering how the locket made the wearer feel despondent.

"And where is it now?"

"We've been taking turns wearing it," Harry explained. "Having it on makes you feel . . . weird. It seems to affect Ron the most. It's Hermione's turn today."

"What are you going to do with it?"

"I don't know," Harry admitted. "If I had the sword, I'd try to destroy it, but obviously I don't. So we'll just keep it safe until we can figure out how to get rid of it."

"But Umbridge obviously knows it's gone, and if she told anyone, it's possible the Dark Lord knows that you've taken it, and he may have pieced together what it is you're doing."

Harry shook his head. "I don't think so. Hermione copied the locket and swapped it out for the real one."

Snape _was_ impressed by that. "Clever girl."

"And there's one other thing." And Harry told him what he had learned about Voldemort and Gregorovich. Snape's immediate reaction was to lecture Harry about the need for Occlumency, but he quelled it. The need for information might be just as great or greater. Instead, he filed it all away to think about later.

"So have you any ideas about where the others may be located?"

Harry sighed tiredly. "No. We tried visiting the orphanage where Riddle was raised, but it's long gone."

"Harry," said Snape earnestly, "you and your friends should come here and stay for a while."

"No," Harry said firmly. "You have no idea how appealing that sounds, but it seems the entire world is looking for us. I won't bring that danger here to your family. Although I did promise them I'd bring back something to eat."

Snape stood up. "I will pack you a hamperful of food."

"Thank you. I really should be getting back. Ron and Hermione will be worried. I've been gone a lot longer than I thought I'd be." He stood up. "I told Tevis I'd say goodbye before I left."

"Go. I'll have this ready in a few minutes."

Harry reluctantly woke Tevis to say a quick goodbye. Saffron was sleeping, too, and he stood over her cradle for a moment watching her chest rise and fall. He wished he had a camera so he could take pictures back to his friends – he was sure they'd never believe Snape capable of creating something so beautiful. He kissed his fingertips and placed the kiss on Saffron's forehead. "Goodbye, little angel."

When Harry returned to the kitchen, Snape had crammed a basket full of things to eat and drink. He spelled it to the size of a golf ball and handed it to Harry, who put it in his pocket. "Thank you."

"Are you sure you can't stay, even for a couple of days?"

"No. Thank you, but we'll be fine."

"Well, come back when you can," Snape ordered.

"I will," Harry promised. "Congratulations again."

Snape's eyes darkened. "Thank you," he said stiffly.

"She really does have your eyes," Harry said softly. He was pretty sure Snape hadn't looked at Saffron long enough to see her with her eyes open. He wanted to say something to take away that look of – panic? fear? – that he saw in Snape's eyes, but he had no idea what the man needed to hear.

Rather than putting him at ease, this information seemed to agitate Snape further, and he said nothing.

"Well, I'd better be off," Harry said. "Take care of them. And yourself."

"I could say the same to you, Mr. Potter," and he shocked Harry by extending a hand to him. Solemnly, Harry shook it. Snape then turned on his heel and strode from the room. Harry could almost see the robe he wasn't wearing billowing around him as he went.

##########

Every day, at least once, Tevis asked Snape if he'd like to hold Saffron. He never said no, but he always had some excuse – he'd been brewing potions and smelled of fumes, he'd been in the garden and wasn't clean, she was sleeping. He hadn't held his own daughter, not once, since she'd been born, and Tevis was getting more and more distraught about it as the days turned into weeks. She wanted to ask him why, but she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the reason. She'd accepted a long time ago that Severus may never feel about her the way she felt about him, though he'd come a lot further along than she'd had any right to expect, and indeed, he was being perfectly solicitous to her now. It was just the baby he seemed to want to pretend didn't exist. It had never occurred to Tevis that he would reject his own child.

Taking care of a newborn baby was tiring work, especially when one was doing it virtually alone, and Tevis was exhausted and found herself perilously close to tears almost all the time. If he would just _look_ at Saffron, just once, she knew he couldn't continue to hold onto whatever reason he had for acting the way he did.

She was sitting in the garden, staring dejectedly at the weeds that needed pulling, when she heard someone apparate outside the gate. She looked up, expecting to see one of the Weasleys, and her mouth fell open when she saw Harry push his way through the gate.

Wordlessly, she got to her feet and met him halfway across the garden and threw herself into his arms, unable to stop the tears that had been threatening to fall now that he was here and could help her sort this out.

Harry didn't ask Tevis what was wrong – he merely held onto her, sensing her need for support. He smoothed her hair as she cried into his shoulder, until she looked up at him. "Sorry," she said.

"Don't be. Do you want to tell me what's wrong?" He took her hand and led her to the bench in the garden, where they both sat down.

"I'm just being silly," she said, wiping her eyes. "I'm fine really."

"Something's bothering you," Harry insisted. "Might as well get it off your chest."

"It's Severus," Tevis confessed. "He _still _hasn't held the baby. I don't know what's wrong. He won't even _look _at her!"

Harry sighed. "I don't think it's her," he guessed. "He's not had a lot of good things in his life, you know? Maybe he just doesn't know how to handle it. Where are they anyway?"

"In the living room. Saffron's sleeping in the bassinet. Severus was writing at his desk."

Through the open window, they heard the sound of the baby's reedy cry.

"Saffron _was_ sleeping," Harry corrected. "Shall we go see her?"

"No," Tevis said quickly, putting a hand on Harry's arm as he started to rise. "Let's see what he does."

Snape looked up, startled, when he heard the baby's cry. He hadn't known Tevis had placed the child in the room with him. He looked around the room for Tevis, but made no move to get up and find her. She would undoubtedly come when she heard the child.

But she didn't. And the child's cries grew louder and more insistent. In the garden, Tevis had to forcibly restrain herself from getting up and going to her daughter. She'd just eaten an hour ago, so she knew Saffron wasn't hungry, but it was still difficult to just let her cry.

When Tevis still hadn't come after the baby had been crying for a full two minutes, which seemed like ten to Snape, he stood up, agitated. He'd been absorbed in what he was doing, but he knew Tevis was in the garden, and when he'd heard the sound of someone apparating, he'd looked to be sure it was a friendly before returning to his desk. So where was Tevis, and why wasn't she coming to tend the child? He looked out into the garden but could see no sign of her or Harry. He wasn't concerned about her safety – she was with Harry, after all – but why wasn't she coming in?

Cautiously, as though approaching a basket of cobras, Snape made his way to the bassinet and looked down at the child squalling half-heartedly. He also knew she couldn't be hungry. Despite his desire not to get too close to this child, he was very aware of her every time she cried and whenever Tevis tended to her. So why was she crying? Wet nappy? Or worse? A quick spell check told Snape that wasn't the trouble.

Perhaps she had gas? There was only one way to cure that, he knew – picking up the child and patting its back. He looked around the room once again, hoping her mother had appeared. They were alone.

Snape slowly reached his hands into the bassinet and carefully scooped the child up. "Here now, what is all this noise about?" he asked quietly.

At the sound of his voice, Saffron immediately stopped crying and opened her eyes, staring up at him with her black eyes, _his_ black eyes, as if to say, "So _you're _the man whose deep voice I've been listening to for months now!"

"Stars!" Snape breathed. She really _did_ have his eyes. If he'd had any doubt that the child Tevis was carrying was his, and if he was totally honest, there was a small part of him that had wondered that very thing, those doubts were dispelled now.

Saffron seemed perfectly content now that she was being held. Snape had been holding her out, not quite at arm's length, which grew uncomfortable quickly. He shifted her so that she was lying in the crook of his arm and continued to stare down at her, unable now to take his eyes away.

She was the picture of perfection, round rosy cheeks, small button nose (and thank Merlin for that!), perfect pink lips, no hair to speak of really, and those obsidian eyes, looking up at him now as though she understood him completely and thought him very foolish. "Oh," he said, the wonder of her filling him completely.

His legs suddenly felt very wobbly, and Snape sat quickly on the sofa. He lay his daughter along his thighs, and they studied each other. Snape finally noticed what she was wearing – the green lion outfit Harry had picked out for her on her first day. "What atrocious thing is this you're wearing?" he asked her. "I think we can do better than that."

A quick incantation changed the lion to a cute little yellow and blue snake with long eyelashes. "Better, no?"

The edge of Saffron's mouth turned up. Snape had read the books – babies this age didn't smile. It was probably gas, as he'd suspected was troubling her. But his cold, cold heart saw the smile, and no amount of logic or deductive reasoning was going to convince him he hadn't, and the ice melted away, leaving only the burning core that was this child – _his_ child.

Strangely, to him, tears jumped to his eyes, and he said, "Oh," again. "So _that's_ what it feels like."

He reached a long finger out to touch her tiny hand, poking it into her fist so she could take hold of it. Her grip was surprisingly strong, and he told her so. He was suddenly possessed with a desire to see her toes, and after asking her permission, he unsnapped the new snake jammies and pulled her legs out. There they were – ten perfect little round toes. A new desire possessed Severus, and he gave in without thinking about it. He brought each little foot to his mouth and kissed it tenderly before redressing her.

"I'm your father," he told her. "Severus Snape. We haven't been properly introduced, and that's my fault. You have my sincerest apologies." She seemed to forgive him, which was very heartening.

"Oh Severus," Tevis said from the door. Her eyes were filled with tears.

Snape extended a hand to her. "I've been a fool, my dear. Can you possibly forgive me?"

Tevis went to him and took his hand, sobbing with relief. "Yes!" she said. "I forgive you!"

He embraced Tevis with one arm and steadied his daughter with the other. "Where's Harry?" he asked.

"I'm here," Harry said, stepping in from the kitchen. He hadn't wanted to intrude on the emotional family moment and had stayed discretely behind.

"Harry," Snape said, pleased to see him. "Come and see my daughter." And Snape felt something expand in his chest, something that might have been pride at this beautiful creature that he had helped to create. He wasn't sure, because he'd never really had anything to be proud of until this moment.

Harry stayed for lunch and caught Snape up on the progress they had made, which didn't take long because they hadn't made any. He left directly after lunch with another large hamper of food and promises to return when he could.

Thirty minutes after he'd apparated away, Molly and Arthur Weasley apparated in with their regular grocery delivery. Molly made much fuss over Saffron and answered what seemed like a million questions from Tevis. While the two women talked over tea in the kitchen, Severus and Arthur stood beside the bassinet, watching the baby sleep.

"I . . . didn't expect this," Severus admitted.

"You didn't think she was carrying a litter of puppies around in there, did you?" Arthur joked.

Severus ignored this. "I have dealt with parents a significant number of times over the years I have been teaching. I have often heard what I thought were platitudes expressed about the overwhelming . . . love a parent feels for a child. During Tevis' pregnancy, I was . . . concerned that I was not capable of this emotion and that when I looked at the child, I would feel nothing." Severus paused for a moment, as though he could not speak. When he did speak again, his voice was a strangled whisper. "Imagine my surprise when I discovered I was wrong."

Arthur's jolly face beamed at him, but Severus was looking only at his daughter.

"She is the very essence of goodness and light. And I . . . well, I am not. I was afraid to touch her, even to look at her, for fear that what I am would touch her, somehow taint her. It was a shock to discover that it actually worked the other way – her goodness and light touched me. Me!" he repeated, emphasizing just how incredible that was.

"'It is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us.' The Muggle writer Charles Dickens said that."

"How do you do it, Arthur?" Severus asked.

"I'm sorry. Do what?"

"Walk around with your heart outside your body. For that _is _what this feels like."

Arthur beamed at him again. "Welcome to fatherhood, Severus."

##########

Of course, once Severus was able to look at and touch his daughter, Tevis' life got much easier. She took the feedings from six through midnight, Severus took them until six in the morning, and they split them throughout the day. Severus was making a concerted effort to make up for missing the first two weeks of Saffron's life, and he began talking to her almost incessantly, about whatever happened to be on his mind. A lot of the time, this was potions. Tevis thought discourse on this topic likely to lead to Saffron falling instantly asleep, but the baby seemed to like the sound of her father's voice, and her dark eyes seemed to bore straight into him when they were together.

Christmas was quiet with just the three Snapes. They hadn't seen Harry since Saffron was two weeks old, and Tevis missed him fiercely and worried about him daily. She tried not to – she'd seen him at the age of forty, after all. But the simple fact was that no vision she'd ever had had ever been proven true, and as much as she had verbally clung to her belief when it came to Severus and their relationship, the simple truth was that she had no reason to believe what she'd seen would come to pass. And until she did . . . she worried.

Tevis had decorated the house, wanting her daughter's first Christmas to be as normal as possible. She'd transfigured a coat rack into a Christmas tree, paper clips into decorations, and a shoelace into garland. Presents for the baby were hardly necessary, but Tevis put a lot of thought into a present for her husband. Their inability to leave this place forced her to cobble together something out of what was on hand.

Finally, she decided to brew something, something personal to them, something Severus would never make for himself.

Severus opened the small box and removed the jar from within. "You brewed something," he said. She often worked in the lab, either with him or on her own projects, and he'd never suspected she was making a gift for him. "What is it?"

"Open it and see," she urged, jiggling Saffron in her arms when the baby started to fuss.

Severus removed the lid from the jar and brought it to his nose to sniff. He recognized the scent at once – Tevis' personal lavender and vanilla blend. But what could it be? He looked up at her, and she smiled encouragingly.

He inserted two fingers into the liquid in the jar. They came away covered with a thick, creamy, slippery substance which Severus massaged into his fingertips. Was this . . . could this be . . .? He looked up at his wife again, and she nodded.

"It is," she confirmed, as though he'd asked the question aloud.

"But why have you given me lubricant?" They hardly needed it for their normal sexual activity.

"Well, I thought perhaps you enjoyed what Harry did to you enough that you might like to incorporate it into our lovemaking. And I thought maybe I'd let you try it on me. If you want."

Severus thought that he very much _did _want, perhaps even right now, but he tamped down the surge of desire that tore through him at her characteristically blunt words. He cleared his throat. "Thank you. I look forward to it." He leaned over and kissed her, taking her hand and placing it in his lap so she could feel for herself just how much. His other hand he wiped on his robe.

"Now?" she asked with a raise of her eyebrows.

"Soon," he promised. "First, this." And he handed her a small box of his own.

Tevis handed Saffron to her father, who settled the baby in his arms comfortably, as though he'd been doing it all his life, then removed the wrapping from Severus' offering. Inside she found a bracelet with several multi-colored stones. She gasped.

"Severus! It's beautiful!" She removed it from the box and held it up to admire it.

Shifting Saffron out of the way, Severus leaned closer. "This is a mineral, jasper," he said, pointing to a blue stone. "Blue is very rare. This red one is also jasper. Jasper is thought to have nurturing healing power. It is also considered a stone of protection from one's enemies and provides courage in conflict." Severus moved on to another stone.

"These rocks," he said, pointing in turn at stones of white, orange and silver, "are agate. Agate is the stone of balance. The silver one is a Botswana agate, and is thought to promote protection, fertility, passion, and artistic expression."

Tevis raised her eyebrows at that. "Fertility?"

"Hmmm, yes," Severus said, continuing his dissertation. "These blue stones are lapis lazuli. Of its many properties, it is thought to be a stone of truth and friendship and communication in relationships. All of these things I wish for you."

Tevis felt tears in her eyes. "Thank you, Severus. I love it, and I'll wear it always." She hugged him, being careful not to squeeze Saffron between them. "Happy Christmas."

"Happy Christmas, love," Severus said.

"This would be perfect if . . ."

"If Harry were here?" he finished when she did not.

"I miss him," Tevis said simply. She had kept an ear on the back garden all day, hoping for a visit from their friend, but it had not come. "I hope that wherever he is, he's well-fed, well-rested, and safe. Happy is probably too much to ask for."

Snape, too, had been hoping that Harry, and perhaps his two partners in mischief, might make an appearance today. He supposed the fact that Voldemort had made no announcement of Harry's capture meant the trio was still successfully hiding from the demented bastard, but he couldn't help but worry. "Shall we put this little monster down for the night and then perhaps make use of your most excellent gift?"

"That sounds like a brilliant plan," Tevis agreed.

Saffron was soundly sleeping in her cot, and Severus and Tevis were stretched out on the bed, completely naked, kissing.

Tevis pulled away. "Did you have a happy Christmas, Severus?"

Severus reached up and touched her face reverently. "Never have I enjoyed a holiday more. It did not occur to me, at any point in my miserable past, that I could have this . . . normalcy. A wife and a child. A relationship with a woman that was both reciprocative and fulfilling. You have given me so much."

"Christmas makes you soppy," she noted.

Severus flushed in embarrassment and looked away. "I –"

Tevis cut him off with a quick kiss. "I like it," she assured him.

Another kiss, this one deeper and more insistent. Tevis' hand found its own way to Severus' full prick, and when she pulled away, she asked, "So, how do we do this?"

"Are you sure that you want to?"

Tevis shrugged. The idea of anal sex had never really appealed to her (although watching Severus and Harry had been the hottest thing she had ever seen), but until she tried it for herself, she would never know how it felt. "I'll never know what it's like if I don't try it, right?"

"Are you doing this for me, or for yourself?"

"For both," she assured him. "So how do we do this?"

"Well, first a cleaning spell, I think." Severus found his wand and gave it a quick wave. Tevis felt his spell tingle in all her private parts.

"Oooh, I like that," she assured him.

"Now, you, up on your hands and knees," Severus instructed.

Tevis did as he requested, then wiggled her bum at him. "This always seemed so . . . animalistic."

"You do bring out the beast in me," he confirmed. He knelt behind her and smoothed his hands over the round globes of her arse, admiring the tautness, the shape, the smoothness of her skin, everything. Using his thumbs, he pulled her cheeks apart, revealing her virgin entrance to him. He lowered his face to her cleft and licked her, once, from vagina to tailbone.

"Holy crap," she said.

"Mmm," Snape agreed, and did it again. And again. And then he stiffened his tongue and used it to trace around the ring of guardian muscle and then probe inside, just as she did on occasion to him, inserting just the tip into the tunnel beyond. "I shall prepare you now."

He pulled away long enough to retrieve the new jar of lube, opened it and covered a finger in the goo. "Ready?" At her nod, he slid one finger in, gently, all the way to the final knuckle. There was little resistance. "How does that feel?"

Tevis had willed herself to remain relaxed, despite his intrusion into a place where no one had gone before. "Um – weird," was all she could bring herself to mutter.

"I'll need to add another finger," he told her. He withdrew his hand and coated two fingers with the gel, then slowly inserted them both. "Still okay?"

"Mm hmmm," Tevis said. She was waiting for this to feel good, but so far, all it felt was – full and uncomfortable.

Severus began to move the fingers in and out of her, twisting them as he did so, opening her and preparing her to take more. He didn't warn her when he slipped the third finger in with the other two. She noticed and bit her lip, but didn't say a word. When Severus deemed she was as ready as she was going to be, he pulled his fingers out.

"It's time. Still willing?" He was panting, looking forward to this more than he had any right to. His wife provided him with willing access to her mouth and vagina regularly – why should penetrating her anally be so arousing? He didn't know the answer to this question, but he did know he was hard enough to cut glass. He stroked himself, applying the lubricant liberally to his throbbing prick, suspecting it wasn't going to take long inside her before he came.

"Go ahead," she told him, willing herself again to remain as boneless as possible, sensing there would be less pain if she were relaxed. Also, she asked herself, how much larger could his cock be than the three fingers he'd just had up her ass?

Not much, it turned out, but enough to notice. The stretch and burn was uncomfortable enough to cause her to whimper when he pushed the head of his cock through. He either didn't hear her or misinterpreted the cause, because he continued his slow but steady press into her passage until his balls were pressed between their thighs. Fully seated, he stopped to gather his raging hormones, sure if he didn't that he'd lose it right now without even moving.

Once he thought he could without embarrassing himself, he pulled back slowly, then pressed back in. "Merlin, love!" he breathed, watching himself slide in and out of her, that sight alone challenging the control he had over himself. "You're so tight, so hot . . . I don't think I can last." He'd meant to reach around and stimulate her manually while he drove into her from behind, but he was quickly losing his purpose and his capacity for thought and reason.

Base instinct controlling him now, he began to increase his pace until he was pounding into her mindlessly. At some point, Tevis dropped her face into her pillow, and though she was trying so very hard to control it, tears had sprung to her eyes as he drove her into the bed over and over again.

Finally, with a loud cry that was close to a recognizable word but really wasn't, Snape came deep inside her, and his rate of movement slowed appreciably as his cock spurted into her what felt like the biggest payload of semen he'd ever produced. It seemed to take forever, they both thought, for it to end, and when it did, Snape wrapped his arms around her waist and collapsed to the bed, pulling her over with him, wanting to keep his rapidly-softening prick inside her as long as possible.

It was many moments before Snape descended from the peak he'd reached at the moment of climax. This, he thought, was bliss, as his senses slowly floated down from the euphoric high his orgasm had taken him to. His sensitized penis finally slipped out of Tevis' arse with a squishy wet sound, causing Severus to jump a little. He tightened his hold around his wife, burying his nose in her hair, feeling the pull of sleep after such a glorious culmination and finding no reason to fight it.

Tevis cried quietly, not wanting to alert Severus to her distress. She'd found no part of that experience pleasurable, and she was afraid if she told him, his insecurities when it came to their sex life would rear their ugly head and have him blaming himself for a poor performance or lack of desirability. It hadn't been him she'd found wanting – it was the act itself. Apparently not having a prostate to pleasure left only the pain and discomfort of the penetration itself to focus on.

Thanking Merlin, Circe and Morgana that she could perform wordless and wandless magic, Tevis cast a cleansing spell on herself, as the steady ooze of Severus' spunk from her asshole was adding to the unsettled way she was feeling. Figuring she'd need it sooner rather than later, Tevis planned to wait until Severus fell asleep, as he was obviously so near to doing, before she got up and found a painkilling salve to apply to her backside.

Tevis sniffed as quietly as she could, but apparently it was just loud enough to penetrate Severus' post-coital haze, and he propped himself up on an elbow and looked down at her. He was just about to say something in praise of her wondrous arse when he noticed the tears on her face and the look of abject misery about her eyes.

"Oh, Merlin, Tevis, I've hurt you!" he whispered, horrified.

"No," she said quickly, wiping her dripping nose with the back of her hand. "It didn't . . . well, it did, but that's not why . . ."

Severus conjured her a handkerchief and handed it to her. Gratefully, she took it and wiped below her nose, then blew it loudly. She banished the handkerchief but made no attempt to explain herself.

"You did not enjoy it," he said, clearly a statement and not a question.

"I'm sorry, Severus. It wasn't you. I just . . ."

"It hurt?" he guessed, feeling like the worst kind of husband . . . man . . . human being imaginable.

"It did, a little," she said. "It was more like an uncomfortable burning stretching feeling, much like when Saffron was born, although obviously in a different spot."

"There was no pleasure, then," he said.

"No," she admitted. "There was no pleasure. I wanted this to be good for you. I'm sorry."

"_You're _sorry?" he asked, as the full weight of how thoughtless he had been settled over him. "You have nothing to be sorry about. I sought only my own pleasure. I gave very little thought to your comfort or enjoyment. For Merlins' sake, I didn't even provide the simple courtesy of a cleansing charm afterward. I simply rolled over and nearly fell asleep. As you lay here crying and hurting!" Severus dropped back onto the bed and threw an arm over his eyes. "What kind of a man am I?!"

Okay, he was being a little dramatic now. Tevis rolled over to face him, trying to hide the wince caused when her bum twinged with pain. "Severus, look at me. Look at me!" she demanded when he didn't remove his arm.

He dropped his arm to the bed and looked at her, and she could see the self-disgust in his eyes. She traced a finger down his cheek. "It's all right. We tried it. You obviously liked it, and I'm sorry for that reason that I didn't. But it doesn't make you a bad person, and it doesn't make the fact that we did it wrong. You experiment with potions all the time, right? Sometimes an experiment is a spectacular success, and sometimes it goes badly wrong, and sometimes the result is . . . nothing."

"And this went badly wrong," he stated.

"I wouldn't say that. I'd put it somewhere _between _badly wrong and nothing. Look at it this way, the next experiment we try, _you _may not like."

Severus' eyebrows raised in interest at this statement. "What did you have in mind?"

"Oh, I don't know. I was thinking perhaps I would take all your clothes off, cast a levicorpus on you, then suck your cock while you were upside down. Imagine all the theories involving blood flow we could test."

Said prick gave an interested little twitch at that, despite its fatigue. Severus smiled thinly at his wife, happy that she was able to joke after what he had just done.

"Or, how about this? We polyjuice into each other. That way, we can learn exactly how and where to touch." Tevis nodded, really liking the sound of that idea.

Although Severus liked hearing her fantasies, he still felt like the world's biggest schmuck. "I am sorry, my dear."

"Don't be. I still get to fuck you in the ass," she pointed out.

Severus winced, both at her blunt language and the fact that she might use that as an opportunity to get revenge. Good thing he trusted her. "We'll not be doing that until you conduct your own experiment. That seems only fair."

"And you Slytherins are so noted for your devotion to fairness," Tevis pointed out.

"Insolent girl. I particularly like the sound of your polyjuice fantasy. I have some already brewed, you know. That could be very interesting indeed."

Tevis smiled at him, a smile which warmed his heart and sent a rush of feeling straight to his groin. "I like the way you think, my shrewd little potions master."

##########

Two days after Christmas, and there was still no word from Harry. Tevis had lain down for a nap while Severus entertained Saffron, and he woke her with a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Mmm. Hi," she said sleepily. "What time is it?"

"It's just before six," Severus said softly, brushing a kiss across her forehead.

"Where's Saffy?"

"Downstairs. Sleeping."

"Would you like to join me?" she asked, patting the bed beside her.

"Maybe later. No," he corrected, "definitely later. But first . . . I have a surprise for you downstairs."

Tevis sat up. "A surprise? But Christmas was two days ago."

"Come down with me anyway," he suggested.

"All right." She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stretched fully.

"Do you trust me?" Severus asked.

The question surprised her, but she knew the answer. "Of course I do."

A quick wave of his wand, and a black silk covered her eyes, completely blinding her. "Oooh, Severus! Kinky!"

"Take my arm," he instructed, holding his arm in front of her. Tevis reached out and grasped his arm, and he led her down the stairs. He escorted her to a chair and assisted her in sitting down. She heard and felt Severus sit beside her.

He took her hand on the tabletop. "Ready?" he asked.

"Yes."

Severus hesitated one moment, then removed the black silk with his wand. "Happy Anniversary, darling."

Tevis took it in – the candles, the yellow flowers on the table, her husband sitting beside her holding her hand – with a look of growing horror. "No!" she whispered. This couldn't be happening – not now, not _already_!

"You bastard!" she said, jumping to her feet. "How could you?!" And she turned and ran back up the stairs, sobbing into her hands.

Severus sat, stunned. What had just happened here? The one romantic bone in his body had told him to do this, to celebrate the creation of their daughter. So he'd worked quickly while she'd slept, making her dinner, setting the scene. And something had gone terribly wrong, and he didn't even have a clue as to what that might be.

He was still sitting, looking and feeling dumbfounded, when Harry strode into the room. "Severus! Merry Chris–" At the look on the other man's face, Harry stopped. "What's wrong? Has something happened to Tevis? Saffron?"

Severus looked up in surprise. He hadn't heard Harry arrive. "No . . . no, they're fine." He nodded in the direction of Saffron's bassinet, and Harry peeked in.

"She's gotten so big!" he noted. "So if everyone's all right, then why do you look like you've just seen a two-headed dragon? What's happened?"

"I don't know," Severus admitted, bewildered.

Harry looked at the table – the candles, the flowers, the food. "Looks like you were having a nice dinner. I didn't interrupt, did I?"

"No. No, she'd already . . ." What exactly had she done?

"Where is she?"

"Upstairs."

"Why?"

"I don't know," Severus admitted again. "We had just sat down. I took off the blindfold . . ."

"A blindfold!" Harry interrupted. "You _blindfolded _her? No wonder she freaked out!"

"No, it wasn't that. That didn't bother her at all." In fact, she seemed to like that part. "When I took the blindfold off was when she 'freaked out', as you so eloquently put it."

"What did she say?"

"She . . . she called me a bastard and ran upstairs."

"And what did you say, after taking off the blindfold?"

"I only said, 'Happy Anniversary'."

"Anniversary?" Harry repeated, confused. "Anniversary of what? You only got married this summer."

"The anniversary of the night the child was conceived," Severus said dryly.

"Oh. You mean . . . when you and she . . ." Something clicked in Harry's brain. "Wait a minute!" he blurted. "Tell me exactly what you did and said to her!"

"I led her to the table. She sat down. I sat down. I took her hand. I removed the blindfold. I said, 'Happy Anniversary, darling'. She called me a bastard and ran back upstairs."

"Oh! Oh my God! I think I know what's going on here!" Harry said excitedly. "It was her vision! The vision she told me about you and her that convinced her the two of you were meant to be. What you described sounds like what she told me she saw."

Severus sat back in his chair. "But why would that . . .?" He stopped, because he thought he understood why that would upset his wife.

"Do you want me to go up and talk to her?" Harry offered.

"No. I think she and I need to work this out." Snape stood up. "Can you stay with Saffron?"

"Of course. Take your time."

"Harry, it is . . . very good to see you. Tevis has been . . . _we _have been . . . worried."

"I know it's been a while. I have a lot to tell you. But go take care of your wife first."

Severus nodded and began to ascend the stairs. Harry sat down and tucked into their celebration feast.

Severus stood in the bedroom door. Tevis sat on the bed with her back to him. He crossed the room and sat on the opposite side of the bed.

"I believe I know what has upset you," he said. "Harry is downstairs. He told me about your vision. Congratulations, my dear. You are a true seer."

"Yeah, great," Tevis muttered. She'd checked her journal – sure enough, beside the space she'd left for her vision concerning Severus, the date had been recorded, her accuracy mocking her now. Now that it had happened, there was no reason not to record the details, she supposed. She'd already transferred the image into the journal.

"But you already knew this, no? The vision you had concerning Albus was confirmed before his death."

"It was?" Tevis hadn't looked in her journal in a while. The only new person she'd met in the last several months was her daughter. She'd recorded that vision on a new page, but hadn't looked back through the others. She hadn't met anyone else and had had no other reason to open the journal. "And what were you doing in my journal?"

Snape decided in his own best interests to ignore this question. "Does knowing that you have the gift bother you?" he asked.

"No. At least I'll feel better about Harry."

"Do you want to tell me what has you so troubled then?"

Tevis turned to face him. "I thought we had years! I thought the vision would take place years from now. Now that it's happened, how can I know . . ."

"How can you know what?" he prodded gently.

"That you won't leave me. Or that you won't be killed the next time you leave here. Before, I felt secure because I knew . . ." He'd gone on a mysterious errand yesterday, refusing to tell her where or why. If he did that now, she'd worry every second he was gone.

Severus got up and came around to her side of the bed to sit beside her. "I cannot promise you that I will not be killed. That would be irresponsible. But as to the other . . ." He reached out and took her left hand between his. He ran his fingers over the ring he'd placed there several months ago. "As to the other, you needn't worry. I've done some foolish things in my life, but I do not consider myself a fool. Only a fool would leave what I have found here with you and our child. There is something you need to know, something I should have told you before, perhaps."

Uh oh. Here it comes, Tevis thought. She tried to pull her hand away, but he held it fast.

"The day that I actually looked at my daughter, I discovered that I was capable of an emotion I thought I'd never experience. I know you know what I'm talking about. When I looked into her eyes, I was almost physically struck with it. It wasn't until a couple of days later that I realized I'd been feeling a similar emotion for some time. Towards you. It wasn't as explosively powerful," he admitted, "but it is just as deep."

Tevis worked that out for a moment. "Are you saying that you love me?"

"Isn't that what I just said?"

Tevis supposed it was, in Snape-tongue. She lay her head on his shoulder. "That's not going to stop me from worrying about you. In fact, it makes it worse."

"Before," Snape continued, wanting to try, at least, to get out all that he was feeling, "when I was alone, I knew, given my lifestyle, that my death could occur on any given day. That thought never troubled me, really. There were days when I almost would have welcomed death as an end to . . . . everything. Though certainly a painful death was something I would have liked to avoid if possible. But now, when I think that I . . . it's different now. It's no longer about me, but what I would leave behind. When I contemplate not seeing our daughter grow and ride a broom and begin school and get married and have children of her own – it makes me want to live more than anything. And if I were never to see you again –" Severus cupped her cheek in his hand. "I would do nearly anything to avoid that."

"I love you, Severus," Tevis said, covering his hand with one of her own. "I don't say it a lot because I know it makes you uncomfortable, but you must know that from the very bottom of my heart, I love you. And I always will."

Severus leaned in and kissed her gently. When they broke apart, they sat side by side for a moment, Tevis' head on Severus' shoulder, happy and appreciative for what they had.

Suddenly, Tevis sat up. "Did you say Harry was downstairs?!"

Severus smiled. "Yes. He arrived right after you stormed up here."

Tevis looked sheepish. "I'm sorry about that. I know you made an effort to do something nice, and . . . romantic, and I ruined it."

"You didn't ruin it. We can still complete parts of what I had planned."

"After Harry?" she asked. She really wanted to see Harry.

Severus sighed exaggeratedly. "Yes, after Harry." He leaned in to give her lips a little preview of what was on offer for later.

"_With _Harry?" she asked, her voice full of hope.

"I thought that was to be a one-time occurrence?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you telling me you didn't enjoy it?"

"I think you know better. Let's go down and see him."

Harry had cleaned the food off both plates. "Sorry," he said when he saw Severus noticing that fact.

"It is no matter," Severus assured him.

"Harry! Merry Christmas!" Tevis said. Harry stood up so they could hug. Tevis squeezed him nearly hard enough to break ribs.

"Same to you!" he said when she let him go. "Everything all right?"

"It is now," she assured him. "Sit. Eat some more."

"No. I'm good, thanks," he assured her. "But I've eaten your supper."

"There's more," Severus said.

They ate in the kitchen, talking in general terms about what Harry and his friends had been doing. Severus had many questions, but he held onto them until he could speak with Harry alone. While the men cleaned up the dinner dishes, Tevis went into the living room for Saffron, who decided she'd like to have something to eat, too. After feeding her, Tevis kicked the men out of the kitchen so that she could bathe her daughter in the sink.

Harry and Severus retired to the living room with tea and biscuits. "Talk," Severus ordered.

"Well, first, the horcrux has been destroyed. That's the most important thing. But let me back up. What's happened since I saw you last?" Harry wondered out loud. "Oh, shortly after I was here before, Ron . . . left us."

"Left you?" Severus repeated.

"Yes. The horcrux . . . it made you feel awfully depressed when you were wearing it. That's why we took turns. But it seemed to affect Ron the most. When it was his turn with it, he was surly and complained a lot. Finally, we had a row about the lack of progress we were making. I'm not sure what he expected. Maybe he thought Dumbledore had let me in on some secret plan that I would reveal at the critical moment. If that was the case, he didn't know Dumbledore very well. Anyway, he disapparated away. We waited as long as we could for him. We knew once we left, he wouldn't be able to find us again, but finally, we had to go. He just came back yesterday."

A look of understanding passed through Severus' eyes which Harry didn't comprehend. "And how did he find you?" he asked.

"Dumbledore gave him his deluminator. He used it to find us."

"So Dumbledore knew . . ."

"Yeah," Harry confirmed. "But I need to back up again. I've been having visions concerning Gregorovitch. I told you about that last time I was here, yeah?"

Severus nodded confirmation, and Harry filled him in on what he'd seen, and they talked for a while about what it might mean.

"And I don't think I told you before that Hermione took Phineas Nigellus' portrait from Grimmauld Place. We've been using it to get updates from Hogwarts. Things are really bad there."

"Yes," Severus agreed. "The Weasleys have kept me informed." The new headmaster, Luther Vashon, was firmly in Voldemort's pocket, and Hogwarts had become more of a prison than a school.

"Yes, of course. And Professor McGonagall, as well, I imagine. Ginny . . . is she all right?"

"She is more than all right. But go on."

"Well, Ron was gone, and Hermione and I were at a loss as to what to do next. So . . . on Christmas Eve, we came here, to Godric's Hollow."

"Here? You were here, and you didn't stop? Why did you come?"

"We were going to stop in, and probably would have stayed the night, but . . ."

"Something happened," Severus guessed.

"Yes. We came here to see Bathilda Bagshot. The Skeeter piece in the _Prophet_ led us to believe she might have information. We even talked ourselves into hoping that Dumbledore had left the sword with her. Not only had he not done so, she was . . . she was not herself. We think she'd been . . . inhabited for some time. By the Dark Lord."

"You're not saying the name," Severus noted with satisfaction.

"Yes, well, Ron told us about how the name has been jinxed so that anyone who says it can be located."

"I'm surprised you've made it this long without mentioning him by name," Severus observed.

"Well, it bothered Ron, so we just got into the habit of calling him 'the Dark Lord'. Good thing, I guess."

"Quite," Severus agreed.

"So old Bathilda had been hosting Nagini. He must have suspected that I'd come here eventually, and he had the snake here, just waiting. She got me alone and . . . transformed." Harry shuddered at that memory. "She called him. She was supposed to hold me here until he arrived. But Hermione heard the struggle, and she came up. She was so awesome! I'd be dead now if it wasn't for her. She got us out of there just as he arrived. But my wand was broken in the struggle."

Severus looked stunned and gulped audibly. "The . . . the Dark Lord was here? In Godric's Hollow?"

"I'm sorry, Severus. If I had known . . . well, I never would have led him so close to you and your family."

"I do know that," Severus assured him. "Well, it's good to know the wards work. If he was that close and didn't detect me, that is heartening. Is your wand repairable?"

Harry removed the pieces from the pouch around his neck and showed them to Severus, who tried his own reparo spell, with no success. Harry sadly returned the pieces to the pouch.

"So how did you escape?"

"We jumped out a second story window, and Hermione disapparated us away in mid-air. It would have been really cool if it wasn't so terrifying. But we didn't leave there totally empty-handed. Bagshot had a copy of Skeeter's book, and Hermione took it. It was . . . illuminating to read about Dumbledore and Grindlewald."

"Harry, surely you don't believe anything that cow has written!"

Harry ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know what to believe any more. Nothing adds up. Just when we think we have something figured out, it all blows to hell." He sighed in frustration. "So anyway, Hermione took us to . . ." Harry thought better of finishing his thought. They were supposed to be in hiding.

"The Forest of Dean," Severus finished softly.

Harry looked astonished. " But how did you know?"

"You've never seen my patronus before, have you, Harry?"

Dumbly, realization beginning to sink in, Harry shook his head, but said, "A doe?"

Severus nodded his confirmation.

"But how?"

"Dumbedore . . . or his portrait rather. He knew you were in contact with Phineas through _his _portrait. So he asked Phineas to alert him if he ever became aware of your whereabouts. Apparently you let something slip yesterday. Some time ago, I . . . commissioned Ginny Weasley to steal the sword from the Headmaster's office, where Dumbledore had hidden it. She was very brave. Had she been caught, her life may well have been in danger. She would not tell me how she managed to get through the wards that must have been in place. She is much like her twin brothers.

"Knowing how the sword must be attained, I couldn't simply hand it to you the next time I saw you. So I devised a plan that would require you to be . . . Gryffindorish to retrieve it."

"The bottom of an icy puddle?! Really? _That _was the best you could come up with?" Harry shivered at the memory.

"It worked, didn't it? Although you did worry me for a while."

"You were watching?! I _thought _someone was out there!"

"Yes," Severus confirmed. "If Mr. Weasley hadn't come along when he did, I would have had to jump in and save you myself. I wondered about where he had been. Now I know."

"His parents don't know he deserted us," Harry said quickly. "No one in his family does, except Bill. He went to Bill instead of going to the Burrow. He was . . . ashamed of himself and didn't think his family would understand."

"He was quite right about that," Severus noted. "His sister alone would have hexed him senseless. Not that _that _would have taken long."

"So you saw when we destroyed the horcrux?" Harry asked.

"No. I left as soon as I knew you were safe. Tevis and Saffron were here alone."

"It was awful," Harry reported, remembering what had come out of the locket. "It did _not_ want to die."

"But it did?"

"It did," Harry agreed.

"So one more down, then. Very well done."

Harry sighed. "Took long enough."

"So what's next?"

"We're going to talk to Xeno Lovegood tomorrow. He was wearing Grindlewald's mark at the wedding. We want to see what he knows."

"Be careful," Severus warned. "He's very . . . eccentric."

"We will."

Tevis entered from the kitchen and handed Saffron to her godfather. Harry noticed how good the baby smelled, and he buried his nose in her fine hair and inhaled. "She smells good!"

"Babies don't always smell like poop, you know," Tevis noted.

"Quite often, though," Severus told him. "And how are Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley?"

"They're fine. Hermione's pretty angry at Ron, but she'll get over it. That's why I left them alone today. I'm hoping they work it out while I'm gone. Hello," he said to Saffron, whose dark eyes had found Harry. She smiled up at him. "She smiled at me!"

"She does that a lot now," Tevis said. "Which you'd know if you visited more."

Harry continued talking to Saffron, trying to coax another of those enchanting smiles out of her.

"I packed you a basket of food to take with you," Tevis told him.

"Thanks. And do you have any pictures of Saffron? Hermione told me I needn't bother coming back without one."

"Of course!" Tevis said. "I'll get you some."

"She's going to ask you to say," Severus told him after Tevis had left the room.

"I'd like to," Harry said, looking down at Saffron again. "But I really need to get back."

"Just so you understand," Severus said, "she's going to ask you to _spend the night_."

"Oh," Harry said, comprehending. And then, "Damn! I wish I could. You have no idea how I wish I could. But we've got a big day tomorrow, and I really need to get some rest tonight."

Severus shrugged. "You don't have to stay the entire night," he pointed out. "Surely you would not be missed for another hour or two."

Harry's hopes began to rise, along with other interested parts of his anatomy. By the time Tevis got around to issuing the invitation, Harry was more than ready. He'd spent a lot of his nights on the run dreaming of things he'd done with the Snapes and things he'd like to do with them if he ever got another chance. Those fantasies had kept him from going mad all those long nights when he couldn't sleep (plus he'd perfected his silencing spells as a bonus when his body demanded relief from the arousing thoughts – sharing a tent with someone could really put a crimp in your . . . style).

Tevis hugged Harry when he appeared in the bedroom. "I've missed you," she said, near tears at the relief of having him back with them, safe.

"I've missed you, too," Harry assured her.

Tevis pulled away from him, took his hand and led him to the bed. "What would you like to do tonight, Harry?"

Harry gulped. "Well, I've actually been thinking a lot about this . . . about what I'd like to do if I ever got the chance . . . if you ever let me back in your bed."

"And?" Tevis prompted.

"I've got some ideas," Harry said as Severus entered the room carrying a sleeping Saffron. He placed her gently in the cot, then turned to Harry.

"What sort of ideas, Harry?" The velvet smoothness of Severus' voice went straight to Harry's cock, and he reached full hardness in record time.

"Well, I was thinking . . ." He stopped when Tevis began pulling his shirt over his head. Once we was free of the garment, she rubbed her hands over his chest, causing him to shiver.

"Are you cold?" she teased.

"God no!"

"Have you ever noticed how much Harry prays to God whenever he's here?" Tevis asked her husband, her hands going now to the button on Harry's jeans.

"I've noticed," Severus said, removing his own shirt.

Harry stared at Severus, hit once again by how sexy this man was, with the sparse hair scattered over his chest and his miles and miles of porcelain skin. He stood so that Tevis could divest him of the remainder of this clothing, then stepped closer to Severus and ran his hands over that enticing skin. Severus leaned down and kissed the shorter man, bringing his body closer by cupping Harry's buttocks and pulling him roughly up against his own denim-clad erection.

Harry groaned deep in his throat and frotted his prick against Severus' front. "You have no idea how much I've missed this."

Harry felt Tevis, obviously nude herself now, slide up against his back. "Come for us, Harry," she whispered into his ear, running her hands down his sides, over his hips, to his raging erection. "Come for us now," she coaxed.

He required no further urging. With Severus still holding him in place by the arse, and Tevis cupping his balls, Harry required only a short period of furious rutting against Severus, the roughness of his placket and belt loops increasing the delicious friction, until he exploded his urgent need all over his own and Severus' belly and chest. When he finally finished, his knees were too weak to support his weight, and if he hadn't been caught between the Snapes, he would have fallen to the floor.

"Mmmm," he moaned. "Snape sandwich."

Severus looked down at him, amused. "Shall we adjourn to the bed?"

"Jesus, look! I'm getting hard again already, just from your voice!" Harry said, obviously pleased by this development.

"Yes, well now that we've alleviated the urgency, perhaps your stamina will be more conducive to other interesting activities."

Harry wasn't sure he understood all that, but it sounded good, so he said, "Bed."

Harry arranged himself on the bed while Severus removed the rest of his clothing. He reached into his wardrobe and withdrew two stoppered vials. "Tevis?" he asked.

His wife looked up at him, instantly understanding what he was asking her. "Tonight, yes. Perfect," she said. She reached up and pulled a strand of hair from her head.

Harry looked from one to the other, clearly not comprehending what was going on. He watched Tevis walk to her husband, admiring her naked form. Severus unstoppered one vial, and Tevis added the hair to it.

Wait a minute! This was a little too familiar. "Polyjuice?" Harry squeaked.

Ignoring him, at least for now, Severus handed Tevis the unadulterated vial, then pulled out one of his own hairs and added it to the potion. "Ready?" he asked.

Tevis nodded and raised the vial to her mouth. Wrinkling her nose at the terrible stench, she closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and tossed the contents of the vial into her mouth. She closed her lips, held her nose, and swallowed.

"Oh, that is nasty!" she gasped.

Severus drank his potion down without so much as a shudder.

Tevis and Severus stared at one another, waiting for the transformation. Harry watched, fascinated, from the bed as the two seemed to switch places.

The new Severus looked down at a body that was much leaner, much longer, and much more masculine than the one she was used to looking at. Her eyes strayed no further than her new penis. Seemingly unable to stop herself, she reached down and took it into one hand, enjoying the way it filled her palm, the way it filled out as she languidly stroked it. "Holy shit, Severus! How do you not do this every minute of the day? It feels incredible!"

"Welcome to the male body," Severus chuckled. He looked down at his own much smaller and much more curvaceous body, and he ran his hands over his hips appreciatively. "But we're neglecting our guest."

"Don't worry about me," Harry assured them. "I can get off just watching the two of you."

Tevis sat on the edge of the bed. "You said you had some ideas,"she reminded Harry.

A delicious blush crept up Harry's face. "Yes, well, you don't know how long and lonely the nights are. I think about horcruxes until my brain falls out, and then I have to move on to something more . . . pleasurable."

"So tell us," Tevis suggested, running a long-fingered hand slowly up Harry's thigh, stopping to fondle his recently-emptied balls.

"Well," Harry said, spreading his legs a bit more to provide better access. "I want to fuck both of you again, of course. And I think I'd like to watch you," he said, looking up at Severus, who remained across the room, watching them, "fuck your wife. From behind. And while you're doing that, I'd like to . . . um . . . I'd like to eat you," he said, turning to Tevis and tracing a circle around her flat left nipple, then sucking gently on it. "But I'm open to suggestions. I like to experiment, too."

A look passed between Tevis and Severus, then a smile crept onto both their faces. Harry noticed and looked from one to the other, then back again. "What?" he said. "What am I missing?"

"We did a little experimenting of our own a couple of nights ago," Tevis explained.

"Oh?"

"Yes. Anal sex. I didn't really like it. But we had some other ideas. Like polyjuice." She looked at her husband. "Join us?"

Severus crossed the room, marveling at the way his new body moved. He lay on the bed next to Harry and turned to take the young man into his arms, joining their lips together as he did so. They kissed passionately while Tevis ran her hands over both of them appreciatively.

"Damn!" she said. "Harry, you and I would have made a very nice-looking couple!"

Severus pulled back away from Harry. "So, what first, Harry? Which of your fantasies do you want to act out first?"

"Hmm," Harry thought, then gasped as Tevis' hand came up between his legs to cup his balls. "You two first. With me underneath."

Harry turned himself around on the bed and lay flat. Severus straddled his head, then lowered his vagina to Harry's mouth. Harry's tongue immediately found his clitoris and wiggled it back and forth, causing Severus to gasp "Fuck!" and flood Harry's mouth with a rush of feminine ejaculate.

"Well, that was fast!" Harry noted with a gleam of mischief in his eyes.

"Mmm, and the best part is, I'm ready to go again already," Severus said, smiling beatifically. "But keep your tongue to yourself for a minute, if you would."

Severus repositioned himself on his knees over Harry, and Tevis came up behind him. She ran her hands up over Severus' breasts, and he dropped his head back on her shoulder. "Take me," he requested.

Tevis used her large hands to push Severus' smaller body over, and he landed on his hands. Taking her cock into her hands, stroking it, enjoying the feel of it in her hands again, she nudged the head against the entrance to Severus' vagina, then slowly pushed herself into his moist canal. "Oh, Jesus!" she groaned. This was surreal. She had a penis, and she was using it to her fuck herself. And then she felt Harry's agile tongue, dancing over the point where she and her husband were joined, and she wondered just how long she'd be able to hold out. Her hips began pistoning faster into her husband until she was slamming into his tight heat with abandon, instinct overcoming her unfamiliarity with being on the giving end of this particular act. She felt the impending orgasm in her balls first, and then it shot out of her raging prick with a fierceness she'd never experienced in her female form. It seemed to go on forever, the sensation impossibly heightened when Severus came, his vaginal muscles massaging Tevis' penis, and by Harry's tongue dancing and darting about down there. When it was over, Tevis could do nothing but collapse against Severus' back, boneless and panting.

Harry wriggled out from under the still-joined pair and helped Tevis off of Severus, laying her gently on the bed. "I think I just died," she announced, causing the two men to chuckle.

"You look all used up," Severus complained. "I know I have more stamina than that."

"Just give me a minute," Tevis requested. "You two go ahead and . . . do whatever."

They didn't need any more encouragement than that. Harry lay Severus down beside Tevis and kissed him thoroughly. Severus spread his legs and pulled Harry atop him. Harry took hold of his cock and dragged it through her folds. "God, you're wet!" he moaned.

"Do that again!" Severus demanded, and Harry complied, rubbing the head of his cock back and forth across Severus' clitoris. "Yes, there! More . . . don't . . . Merlin!" And Severus came again, all over the head of Harry's cock.

"I want to put it in!" Harry cried. "I need . . ."

"What are you waiting for? Fuck me!"

Harry plunged in, all restraint gone. He stopped, panting to get himself under control, and rested his forehead against Severus'. "God, I've missed you!" he whispered.

"Move, Harry," he urged.

Harry pulled out slowly, then pushed back in, developing a rhythm that was insistent but not urgent. Thankful he'd come once already, he enjoyed every slide into the velvety depths and every pull back out through the wet sheath. He felt hands on his arse cheeks, and some tiny part of him realized that Tevis had apparently recovered, but he didn't let them interfere with the sensuous torture he was putting himself through. A cold, wet liquid dribbled into his cleft and was then spread over and into his entrance with a long, inquisitive finger, and he was suddenly torn between the desire to push back into the finger (finger_s_ now) and thrust forward into Severus' naturally lubricated tunnel.

Tevis took that decision away from him when she straddled Harry and Severus, positioning the head of her penis at Harry's arsehole. At Harry's next backstroke, she impaled him on her prick, then pinned both of them to the bed beneath her. Once again squashed into a Snape sandwich, Harry couldn't move, though his cock was crying out for friction. He was able to make only very small thrusts with his hips until Tevis started pounding into him from behind. Every lunge she made forced Harry deeper than he thought possible inside Severus, his cock head touching new and interesting areas.

Beneath them, Severus struggled to breathe until he pressed himself further down into the mattress. Once Tevis started fucking Harry, forcing Harry deeper inside him, Severus cried out, Harry's cock hitting something inside him that had never been touched before, something that drove him straight into another orgasm without any build-up. The sudden intensity had him seeing starbursts beneath his tightly-closed eyes, and he cried out incoherently, his head whipping back and forth as he tried to somehow get on top of the excruciating pleasure before it destroyed him.

"Oh fuck I'm coming!" Harry cried, and he let loose inside Severus, bathing his insides with seed, releasing with each spurt evidence of how very much he enjoyed the treatment he was receiving at the hands (and mouths and other body parts) of his friends.

When Severus and Harry had descended from the mountain of pleasure they'd scaled, Tevis slipped her still-hard cock out of Harry and pulled Harry out of Severus. Tevis took Harry's cock in her mouth and cleaned him up thoroughly, pulling at him until he hardened under her ministrations. She had one last thing in mind before her time in this body ran out, and she needed Harry, as the only other person in the room with a penis.

"Harry, fuck me," she requested.

"I'm not sure I can," he groaned.

"Please, Harry. I want to know what it feels like. I didn't like it when Severus did it to me. I'm thinking having a prostate will make all the difference." She grasped Harry's hard cock in her hand. "You're ready. Please."

Harry's flesh was incredibly over-sensitive, but he'd never been able to deny Tevis anything. "All right. Severus, do you want to prepare her?"

Severus very much did, and he treated his wife to a thorough rimming before greasing his fingers and stretching her adequately to receive Harry. During his foreplay, he found her prostate, and it was every bit as pleasurably jolting as Tevis had believed it would be. When Harry pushed tiredly into her, he found her prostate and battered it repeatedly until Tevis came helplessly in Severus' hand. Harry pulled himself out of Tevis' arse. He hadn't come, but he was so tired that he didn't think he could, and he was more than happy to just let his cock deflate, which it did quickly.

"Thank you," Tevis said. "Do you want to . . .?" she asked, waving at his groin.

"No. Not right now. Maybe we could rest for a minute. Or thirty."

"Sure, Harry," Tevis said. The three of them lay together, limbs entwined, and promptly fell into a erotica-induced comatose state.

They were awakened a short time later by Saffron's cries. Tevis sat up and realized that she had her own body back, as did Severus. She got out of bed and picked Saffron up, speaking to her softly and rocking the baby in her arms. Saffron had started sleeping longer and sometimes didn't need to eat when she awakened in the night. Tevis hoped this would be one of those nights. When Saffron's eyes dropped close, Tevis said a prayer of thanks and returned the baby to her cot before climbing back into bed.

She was ready for one more round, and she rolled atop Severus and wriggled her now-familiar body over his. His arms went around her as he ground his erection into her. Harry lay there and watched them, his own interest becoming rapidly apparent. Severus kissed his wife, then dumped her onto the bed between him and Harry. Tevis smiled at Harry and ran a gentle hand down his cheek. "I'm glad you're here," she whispered. And she leaned over to kiss him.

Tevis was pulled away from Harry's mouth by her husband's hands on her body, pulling her over and up until she was on her hands and knees in the center of the bed. Severus prepared to mount her again. He did all of this without speaking, his need for his own release coursing through him like a cruciatus.

He slid into Tevis, the way made ready for him by their earlier activities and the copious amounts of semen she'd already been gifted with.

Harry positioned himself beneath them again and pushed Severus' heavy balls up out of the way so that he could watch as the long, slender cock slid in and out of Tevis, fluids leaking out of her in a torrent. He raised his head and stuck out his tongue and began lapping away at whatever he could reach – Tevis' perineum, now covered with come; Severus' cock as it pulled out of Tevis; Tevis' vagina when Severus pulled all the way out in his uncoordinated frenzy. He continued licking when Severus finally, _finally_, lost his load inside his writhing wife, and he was still laving away when Snape pulled out, causing a huge load of spunk, to cascade out onto Harry's tongue. He lapped happily, and now that all impediment was gone, he stuck his tongue inside Tevis' tunnel, seeking out the source of all of this life juice, coaxing every drop he could find onto his tongue and down his throat. His tongue-lashing was so thorough, he brought Tevis to two more orgasms before he was through. Vaguely he felt a hand wrapped around his cock, but he didn't completely register what he was feeling until his own orgasm burst through him, and he shot spunk straight up into the air. Severus redirected his cock so that he shot the last few spurts onto his own face.

Harry lay panting on the bed for a moment before being assaulted by Severus, who kissed and sucked and licked Harry's face, sharing the mixture of fluids he found there. He dragged Harry up the bed so that he rested beside his wife, and Tevis joined in the cleaning of Harry Potter, licking one side of Harry's face like a mother cat cleaning its young. Extraordinary though it seemed, Harry's cock began to rise again at the sheer eroticism of the fact that two people were licking come off his face, and he finally moaned, "Stop," because he thought sure he would die from the pleasure.

They collapsed on the bed in a tangle of limbs, smelling of sweat and semen and lavender and vanilla.

Harry wished he could stay the night, but he knew his friends were expecting him back and that they'd worry if he didn't return shortly. He really didn't need to have them come bursting in here, wondering what had held Harry up. He loved Ron and Hermione, but he didn't want to share this with them. This belonged to him and the Snapes.

He allowed himself ten minutes to get his bodily systems back to normal, then kissed both of them soundly and thanked them profusely. Thirty minutes later, after he'd showered, Harry left with a basket of food, photos of his beautiful goddaughter, and a warm feeling of satisfaction filling every morsel of his being.

After he'd gone, Tevis and Severus snuggled under the covers. "Just so you know, I cast a contraceptive spell on myself before we got started."

Snape raised an eyebrow in appreciation for her foresight. "Good thinking. The world isn't ready for another messy-haired green-eyed brat."

Tevis settled her head on her husband's shoulder, fighting the sleep which wanted to claim her. "Severus, do you want more children?"

"I hadn't thought about it, I guess. I would rather like to have a son, I think, to carry on the family name, such as it is. What about you? Do you want more?"

Tevis yawned. "I'd have ten if you'd agree to give birth to the next nine."

Severus snorted in amusement. "Go to sleep, love. You're obviously delirious."

##########

One more chapter . . .


	7. Chapter 7

**Worth Waiting For**

by warviben

**Summary**: A student new to Hogwarts will change Snape's and Harry's lives in ways they could never have imagined.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own these characters (well, most of them anyway). If you're reading this, you likely know that.

Chapter 7

More months passed, with the Snapes living in virtual solitude after nearly a year in Godric's Hollow and Harry and his friends making virtually no progress on their quest to find and destroy Voldemort's ties to life. They'd been told by Minerva that the trio was currently staying with Bill and Fleur, but they were the only three who knew Harry's whereabouts other than the other occupants of Shell Cottage.

Saffron was growing and changing daily, it seemed, and both her parents were delighted with her. At six months, she was making babbling noises and noticing much more of what went on around her. She laughed all the time and could nearly sit up by herself. She loved bath time and splashing in the water. She was still enthralled by the sound of her father's voice but preferred her mother when she was tired. Life would have been perfect if they'd been free to leave this place when they wanted. But until Voldemort and his followers had been taken care of, it was unsafe for Severus to set foot out in public – the price on his head was too high. Behind Harry Potter, Severus Snape was the man most wanted by Voldemort's army.

"Where's Saffron?" Severus asked. Tevis had been working in the garden all morning. Now that spring had finally started to turn to summer, Saffron could play in the magical playpen while her mother worked.

"She's still outside. I'm going right back out there."

"Do you think it's wise to leave her out there by herself?"

"I don't see any harm in it, not for a few minutes. She can't get out of the playpen. Who do you expect to come bursting through the gate? Voldemort himself?"

"No!" The word came out of Severus' throat in a strangled whisper, a look of horror on his face. He grabbed his wand and ran to the back door as the sound of someone apparating into the backyard could be heard. Throwing caution to the wind in his haste to get to his daughter, Severus burst out through the back door and was immediately felled by a stunning hex.

"Well, look who we have here," Fenrir Greyback snarled. "Traitor Snape. I owe you for that incarcerous you hit me with last time we were together, Snape." He pointed his wand at Severus, but before he could curse him again, Tevis jumped into the doorway and disarmed him. Unfortunately, he'd brought two of his friends with him.

Saffron was in the playpen, much closer to the back gate than the house. _Please don't let them see her,_ Tevis prayed as she stood protectively over her unconscious husband.

But it was too late – they'd already noticed. "What have we here?" Greyback asked, approaching the playpen. "Snape spawn? Could it be?"

"Don't touch her!" Tevis cried, trying to keep her wand pointed at all three of them at once.

One of the others by the gate threw a curse at them Tevis didn't recognize, and while she was ducking and shielding Severus, Greyback reached into the playpen and picked up Saffron, who immediately began to whimper.

"Please!" Tevis wailed. "Put her down. You can take me instead."

Greyback eyed her appreciatively. "That's every tempting, but it's your _husband_ the Dark Lord wants. I'll not fight you for him, though. I'll just take the little miss here, and I bet Traitor Snape will follow. Tell him we're in Hogsmeade, at the Shrieking Shack. Tell him he's got thirty minutes. If he's not there, the kid dies. Let's go," he told his companions.

Afraid to try and hex him for fear of hitting Saffron, whom Greyback was using as a shield, Tevis could only watch them go. Crying tears of frustration and fear, Tevis shook her husband's shoulders. "Severus!" she cried, tears streaming down her face. He seemed to be breathing, but he wasn't responding to her at all.

Her hands shaking, Tevis pointed her wand at him. "Ennervate," she said.

Severus' eyes blinked open, and he stared up at her. "Saffron?" he whispered, trying to sit up.

Tevis helped him to a sitting position. "They've taken her!" she cried. "We have to go! They're going to kill her if you're not there in thirty minutes!"

Severus' world was spinning him in many different directions at once, and he knew if he tried to stand now, he'd find himself back on the ground. "Give me a moment," he requested, taking large breaths to clear his head.

"What happened?!" Tevis asked, collapsing to the ground beside him. "How did they find us?"

"You said the name – the Dark Lord's name. It was jinxed so that if anyone said the name, he or she would be immediately located by the Death Eaters. It must have been incredibly strong magic to break the fidelius."

Tevis was horrified – this was her fault! "Oh my God! I didn't know!"

Severus nodded, the simple movement making him sway. "I didn't tell you. You never said it anyway, and I thought planting the idea in your head . . . I realize now I should have told you."

"They took her, Severus! They said to tell you they're in the Shrieking Shack. And that they'd . . . kill her if you weren't there in thirty minutes," Tevis sobbed.

"The Shrieking Shack? He's attacking Hogwarts!" Slowly, Snape rose to his feet. Tevis jumped up to help him stand, then steadied him when he swayed. "I must go," he told her. He realized in one small part of his brain that Saffron may already be dead. Death Eaters weren't known for keeping their word. But he had to go, he had to know. And if he could help defend Hogwarts . . .

"I will bring her back," he promised, turning to Tevis. "Or die trying."

"No!" Tevis choked out, then "I'm going with you."

"You'll do no such thing," Severus contradicted. "I want you here, safe."

"But it's _not_ safe here any more," she argued. "Besides, this is my fault. _I_ led them here. _I_ left Saffy in the garden. Severus, they have my _daughter_!"

She was right. The protections surrounding this place had been breached, and he didn't have time to resurrect them. She'd have to go with him. "All right," he conceded. "I'll be ready to go in a moment." His head was still spinning, and he didn't want to disapparate quite yet. "Go put a note for Harry on the table, warning him to get out of here. If he should happen to stop in . . ."

Tevis didn't need him to finish that thought. When she returned to the garden, he was ready to go. They disapparated together to the forest outside of Hogsmeade. Severus turned to her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Tevis, if . . . if he'll give me Saffron, I want you to take her and go."

"Severus, no."

"If he'll let the two of you go, I need to know you will take Saffron and go. It's me he wants, and if I can bargain my life for yours and Saffron's, I will do so willingly. Promise me. For her. She'll need her mother."

Tevis was crying again. "She'll need her father, too."

"Promise me, my love," he ordered softly, running a hand through her hair.

Tevis didn't want to agree, but she knew that Saffron's life must be preserved at all costs, and she nodded.

"Thank you," Severus said. He leaned down to kiss her. "I love you. And I love Saffron. Tell her for me."

"You tell her yourself," Tevis whispered fiercely.

"Let's go."

##########

Severus was certain Tevis wouldn't have to keep her promise to take the child and go – he knew Voldemort well after all. Mercy wasn't in his lexicon. It was more likely that the Dark Lord would kill both his child and his wife, in front of him, most likely after torturing them both, and he would then turn his considerable cruelty on the one who had betrayed him until Severus was begging to join his family. He really should not be letting Tevis accompany him into the shack, he knew – he was likely leading her to her death. But if their child was killed, and his spouse was taken from him, Severus knew that he himself would not want to go on living. He rather suspected that Tevis felt the same way. If one of them was going down, they would all go together. He reached over and took his wife's hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze. He could tell from the look in Tevis' eyes that she was well aware of what likely awaited them in the shack and had resigned herself to the same fate Severus had.

If there was one thing that Severus was grateful for at the moment it was that he did not currently know Harry's whereabouts. Their information from Minerva was at least two weeks old. Harry could be anywhere. He'd seen how gifted the Dark Lord was at torturing information out of people – what he didn't know, he couldn't reveal. As they approached the front door of the Shrieking Shack, Severus wondered how many more of the horcruxes Harry had been able to find and destroy and whether, were the opportunity to arise and Snape were to kill Voldemort, it would even matter.

Severus could feel that they were being watched as they approached the Shrieking Shack, but he knew that whatever Death Eaters were lurking around here would let them pass unmolested. When they reached the door, Severus stopped and turned to look at Tevis. "Are you ready?" he asked softly.

Tevis looked up, and he could read the truth of what was likely to happen here in her eyes. She knew the chances of any of them getting out of here alive were practically nonexistent, and like him, if her family were taken from her, she would have no will to continue living. If it was her fate to meet her death in this Godforsaken shack, she planned on taking some of the bad guys with her. "Yes, Severus," she said. "I'm ready."

What they couldn't know was that they had an ace in the hole (almost literally), for at this very moment, three people (two of them visible, one of them not) were making their way towards them through the tunnel that connected Hogwarts and the Shrieking Shack.

Severus pushed open the door of the shack and preceded Tevis inside. They squinted into the gloom of the interior, and Severus heard the voice he'd hoped never to hear again.

"Ah, Severus. You've come at last," Voldemort said from the shadows. He stepped closer, into the light being let in from the outside, until he was standing only feet away. "And this must be Mrs. Snape. How lovely she is, Severus. And so young! Had I known you had a taste for children, I would have arranged for you to spend some time with some. But that's no matter now. Aren't you going to introduce us, Severus? Where are your manners?"

"You have something that belongs to me," Severus said, ignoring his former master's sarcastically polite attempt at conversation.

"Ah, yes," Voldemort agreed. "The child. What is it you call her?"

Severus refused to answer, but Tevis stepped closer to the beast and said, "Saffron."

Voldemort turned his attention to Tevis now, and Severus had to stop himself from physically stepping between the two of them. "A beautiful name for a beautiful child." He slanted a look at Severus through his snake-like eyes. "Are you certain she is yours, my friend?" he asked. "If you don't mind my saying so, she's rather too lovely to be the progeny of someone such as yourself."

Again Severus did not speak. He was not going to discuss his child with this monster.

"Don't worry, Severus," Voldemort continued, his tone offering false comfort, "I can tell by her eyes that she in, in fact, a product of your seed. Or perhaps I should say 'was'. Perhaps I have already done away with the child, hmmm?"

"No! You wouldn't!" Tevis cried.

"Wouldn't I?" Voldemort taunted. "Tell your young bride what I'm capable of, Severus."

"Perhaps," Severus said, "if you _have_ killed her, you could just produce the body and end this charade." He heard Tevis choke on a sob beside him and longed to comfort her, but he needed to keep Voldemort focused on him and talking. If he wasn't imaging things in his desperation, the crate in the corner had just been hovered off the floor. Perhaps reinforcements were on the way?

"Severus," Voldemort said in a tsking tone, "you sound as though you never cared for the child. Not that that surprises me – you never struck me as the paternal type. Though you came here after her, so you must feel something for her. Perhaps you're grooming her to take your young wife's place when she's no longer young and appealing, hmm? Is that it?"

Severus certainly wasn't going to dignify _that _heinous accusation with a response. He walked away from the crate, hoping to draw Voldemort's attention away from it, too, because it certainly had moved, enough to allow someone to pass behind it. Had Tevis noticed it, too? Had she seen a potential way out? He was afraid to look at her to see. He didn't want Voldemort's attention on anyone but himself.

"Why don't we just cut to the heart of the matter?" Severus suggested. "We both know what you want. I can give it to you. I can give _him_ to you. In exchange for the lives of my wife and daughter." He was quite convinced that Saffron was still alive. Voldemort would want him to see her die.

"That's a very tempting offer," Voldemort said, obviously lying. "But I think I'll pass. I'm going to kill your wife and daughter, Severus, and _then _you will tell me where Potter is. And as a reward for your betrayal – yet another on your long, long list – I shall kill you."

Severus was certain now that Harry was with them, in this room. He could feel him – he could _smell_ him.

"No, Severus!" Tevis cried. "Don't tell him anything!"

"It's all right," said a voice that didn't seem to belong to anyone in the room. Harry had waited until he was close enough to Tevis to protect her before revealing his presence. Now that he was, he pulled off the cloak and dropped it to the ground. "Hello again, Tom."

Voldemort tried but didn't quite manage to hide his surprise at seeing Harry Potter here. They all watched his wheels turn as he tried to figure out his next move. He'd ordered his Death Eaters to stay outside, knowing he could handle a likely distraught Severus Snape and his child bride himself. Now the odds were distinctly against him, and he was a little nervous. He'd figured out what the Potter irritation had been up to for the last several months, and he decided that Nagini was his first priority. He spoke to her in Parseltongue.

The great snake, which had been lying unnoticed coiled in a dark corner, slithered through what little light there was in the room toward the tunnel opening.

"Harry?" Severus questioned, wondering why the boy was making no attempt to destroy the snake. He'd guessed that Nagini might be one of the horcruxes, and the fact that Voldemort was sending her away confirmed his suspicions.

"It's all right, Severus," Harry assured him.

"'Harry'?" Voldemort repeated. "'Severus'? You two have gotten close."

"You wouldn't understand, Tom," Harry informed him. "You're incapable of caring for anyone other than yourself. She's coming your way, guys!" he called loudly. "You got 'em?"

"Yeah, we got 'em!" Ron's voice echoed out of the tunnel.

Seconds later, the sound of a struggle came from the tunnel. Hissing, that only Voldemort and Harry could understand, a small scream (from Hermione), muttered oaths (from Ron), thumping noises, as though a large tail was striking the wall over and over again. And then silence.

"That's all right, then," Ron said, his voice tinged with satisfaction and a touch of hysteria. "It's done, Harry!"

"Great job!" Harry called back, never taking his eyes off Voldemort. "Stay there for a minute, would you, please. Basilisk fangs," he explained, his voice softer and directed now at the Dark Lord. "They destroy horcruxes. So that's it, Tom. The last horcrux. It's just you and me now."

"No," Tevis corrected. "It's me and Severus and you, Harry." She stepped beside him and took his hand, then reached out for her husband with the other. While they'd been listening to the snake's dying struggle, she'd remembered something, something that filled her with hope, for her daughter and Harry, at least. Something she would have remembered earlier if she'd hadn't been so sick with worry for her daughter. Her visions. She'd _seen_ Harry at forty, and she'd _seen_ her daughter graduating from university. At this moment, she was filled with hope and love for these two men and her daughter, who was likely somewhere near by, and she was sure that none of them was going to die in the Shrieking Shack today. The emotion she was feeling radiated out of her and into the two people standing to either side of her. She threw back her head and laughed, a happy sound so out of place in this dismal place with its desperate occupants.

Voldemort had had enough, and he raised his wand, pointed it at Harry, and cast the killing curse. Though no one pointed a wand to counter it, Tevis' love, as Lily's had done so long ago, acted as a shield, and the curse stopped seemingly in mid-air. The green jet of light split into two separate beams. One turned back on its caster; the other continued on to its intended target. Voldemort, struck in the chest, and Harry, struck in the forehead, both fell to the floor.

Harry lay on the floor of the Shrieking Shack, aware of what was going on around him, but only vaguely. He heard and felt Tevis on the floor beside him, making noises of concern, and he heard Severus' voice somewhere close by. He should open his eyes, he knew, if only to figure out what had become of Voldemort, but he didn't feel quite capable of that yet. So he stayed where he was and he pondered what had happened after the green jet of light had hit him directly on his scar.

He'd gone to . . . King's Cross, he'd told Dumbledore. Yes, Dumbledore had been there, as well as a pitiful creature Harry came to understand was Voldemort, or what Voldemort would become if he died without showing some remorse for all of the evil things he'd done.

Dumbledore had assured Harry that he (Harry) wasn't dead, but that he had a choice about whether to go back or not. There had been no choice, really. The people he loved were all here – he had to go back.

He'd learned that he himself was the last horcrux, but that the part of his soul that Voldemort had unwittingly taken was his own again and that the part of Voldemort's soul that resided in him was dead as well. If Voldemort's physical body could be destroyed now, he had nothing holding him to this earth any longer. He'd be destroyed, once and finally. How could Harry not go back and ensure that?

But first they'd talked about the Deathly Hallows, about Dumbledore's weakness in his youth. Harry couldn't bring himself to think less of the Headmaster – he'd made some bad choices, but he'd certainly been punished enough for them. Just as Severus had.

And then he'd left Dumbledore for the return here. As he lay on the floor, Harry felt as though every bone and every muscle in his body hurt, like he'd been crucio'd repeatedly. Had he known he was coming back to this, he might have chosen differently. No – there was no real choice.

"Harry?" Tevis asked, placing a cool hand on his forehead.

Harry blinked his eyes several times before he could get them to stay open. "Tevis. What . . . what happened?"

"I don't know," she said, swimming in and out of his vision. "Voldemort tried to kill you. His spell split. Part of it hit you, and part of it hit him. You both fell unconscious."

"Is he . . . is he dead?" Harry didn't think so. If he'd returned here, then Voldemort had likely returned as well.

Tevis looked over at Voldemort – he still lay on the floor, and he was showing signs of stirring as well. "No. He's not dead. Weakened, like you are, I suspect."

"How long was I out?" Harry asked.

"Only a few seconds."

Huh. That didn't make sense. It felt as though he'd talked to Dumbledore for hours. Harry tried to sit up, and helpful hands on both sides assisted him. "Get his wand!" he instructed. "Kill him! The horcruxes are all gone. I was the last one! Kill him now!"

"Hush, Harry," said Severus' soothing voice. "That honor should be yours. Can you stand?"

"I think so," he said, though he wasn't sure. With Tevis supporting him on one side and Severus on the other, Harry gained his feet. Severus kept his wand trained on Voldemort, who, with no one to help him up, was still lying prone on the ground.

"Do you have his wand?" Harry asked.

Severus handed it to Harry. "He had Dumbledore's wand," he said, puzzled.

"He thought he had the elder wand," Harry corrected.

Now he looked astonished. "You can tell me that story later. I think you have something to finish," Severus said.

Harry looked down at Voldemort. "Stand up," he ordered. He would not kill a man on the ground.

Riddle had made it to his hands and knees and was panting heavily. Those around him eyed him warily. Though he had no wand, he was still a very powerful wizard and therefore was still extremely dangerous.

"I said, stand up," Harry repeated when Voldemort made no move to do so. "Imperio."

Weakened by his own killing curse, Voldemort was unable to resist the unforgiveable, and he stood, slowly and obviously painfully.

"Do you regret what you have done?" Harry asked, surprising everyone in the room with the question. "This is important. Think it over before you answer."

Voldemort sneered at him. "I regret only that I haven't yet had my revenge on you."

"I thought you might feel that way," Harry said. He hadn't expected Voldemort to suddenly develop a conscience. "There's nothing for it but to kill you then, I guess." He raised his wand and pointed it between the hated man's eyes, and they all waited for it to be over. And waited. Harry lowered his arm. "I can't do it." He'd been planning for this moment all his life it seemed. There had been times when he'd dreamed almost gleefully about finally destroying the man who had ruined his life. But now that the time was here, he couldn't do it. He'd never killed, and he found that now that he had the opportunity, he didn't have the heart.

Voldemort laughed, a watery chuckle. "Weak!" he spat. "Dumbledore has made you weak, with all his talk of love. You should have come to me, Harry. We could have been great together, you and I. We still could. Harry, it's not too late."

"It is for you," Harry assured him. "Severus?" he asked, almost pleading.

"I would certainly have no compunction about finishing this, Harry, but I wonder about the prophecy. 'Either must die at the hand of the other'. I wonder if it is only you that can finish this."

"'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord'," Harry countered. "He looks pretty vanquished to me. I, at least, did that part. Seems like anyone could take care of the rest, doesn't it? Maybe we could just turn him over to the Aurors? They'd send him off to Azkaban. Maybe that's what he really deserves."

"Do you really think leaving him alive is a good idea, Harry?" Severus asked, his voice soft and patient. "If you give the remaining Death Eaters something to rally around, this will never be over."

Harry knew this was true, but he still couldn't do it. This was too much like cold-blooded murder. The man didn't even have a wand to defend himself with! If he did this, was he any better than the evil people he'd given his life, literally, to eradicate? "I know, but this . . . this is just . . . He doesn't even have a wand! He's defenseless! It's wrong! Killing is wrong!"

"How many innocent people has he tortured and killed, Harry?" Severus reasoned. "He had no such thoughts of mercy and justice when meting out his punishment to those whose only crime was being born with impure or non-magical blood. I will do this if you cannot, but your feelings of mercy are wasted on him."

"I . . . I don't think I can do it, Severus. I'm sorry." Harry hung his head, clearly ashamed of himself. The man had menaced society for decades, and there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of witches and wizards who would be only too happy to cast the curse to end it, to end _him_. And here was Harry, with all the reason in the world to want to do it, and the opportunity to do it, and he could not. Voldemort was right – he _was_ weak.

Tevis stood silently by, listening to the moral argument play out, her eyes on the man in front of them, who looked like he might collapse to the floor if he weren't still under the effect of Harry's imperius. She knew there was only one way this could end – Voldemort had to die. It became apparent quickly that Harry could not bring himself to do it. It was just as apparent to Tevis that her husband would have no problem performing the act himself. She thought about what she'd seen in the pensieve and how much Voldemort had stolen from Severus since the moment the young man had wrongheadedly thrown his lot in with evil. She thought about how much this man had taken from her best friend, a man she loved just as much as she loved her husband – his parents, his childhood, his chance at a normal life. She thought about how Voldemort had used an innocent child to lure a father to his death. She thought about all the innocent children and all the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, and friends whose lives had been ended or altered by the evil that was this man.

"It's all right, Harry," Severus said, and he began to slowly raise his wand.

But Tevis couldn't let him do this. Voldemort had already taken such a large part of Severus' soul – she wouldn't let him have any more. She raised her own wand before Severus could get his all the way up and said, "Avada Kedavra," clear and firm.

There was no one to block or diffuse the spell for Tom Riddle, and the green light hit him square in the chest, throwing him back against the wall with such force that the building shook. He was dead on impact. Tevis' knees buckled, and she slumped to the floor.

Harry moved to her side while Severus checked to be sure Voldemort was really gone. "Dead," he said as Ron and Hermione crawled out of the tunnel.

"Are you all right?" Harry asked Tevis as he pulled her to her feet. "What are you two doing here?" He'd been wanting to ask that question since he'd heard them talking with Voldemort as he'd crept up the tunnel. There hadn't been a chance until now.

"Saffron!" Tevis said. "We have to find Saffron!"

"Saffron?" Harry echoed.

"I will check upstairs," Severus said, and he carefully made his way up the creaking stairs, wand drawn. He cautiously approached the open door to the room at the top of the stairs and was startled to find Draco Malfoy standing in the middle of the room, his wand, pointing at the floor and held loosely in his hand. When he saw Severus, he stooped and placed his wand on the floor at his feet, then held his hands up, palms facing Severus, placating.

"Step back," Severus ordered, and Malfoy did as he was told. "Where is my daughter?"

"On the bed," Malfoy said. "He told me to kill her if he gave the signal. He was going to do it himself, once he had you, but if something went wrong, I . . . I was to do it."

Severus crossed quickly to the bed and gazed down at his daughter's still form. In the moment it took for him to realize that her chest was moving up and down in the slow rhythm of sleep, he nearly came undone. When he realized she was still alive, tears of relief pricked behind his eyes.

"I couldn't do it, Professor," Malfoy said, and Severus realized that the boy was crying as well. "He sent me the signal, but I . . . she's just a baby."

"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy. I owe you a life debt. You may pick up your wand."

Severus put his wand away and scooped Saffron up in his arms. He lowered her head to his shoulder and tried not to hug her so tightly he'd injure her. He wanted to stand here forever, just holding onto her, knowing she was safe, but her mother was waiting frantically for news downstairs.

"Come, Draco. The Dark Lord is dead. Let's find your parents."

"She's fine," Severus assured Tevis as he came down the stairs. "She's sleeping. Draco has been caring for her."

Tevis would have hit the floor again if Harry hadn't been supporting her. And then Saffron was in her arms and Snape was holding both of them, and tears were falling. Tevis kissed her daughter's head so many times she finally woke Saffron. The dark eyes looked up at her mother, blissfully unaware of how close they'd all come to disaster, and Saffron said, "Mama" for the first time ever, which made Tevis cry harder.

"We should get to the castle," Severus said, his voice rough from the tears he hoped no one had noticed in the gloom. "We should probably go back through the tunnel. I suspect the Death Eaters gathered around this shack are growing nervous at their master's lack of communication."

"I don't think you need to worry about that, Professor," Ron said. "I went back up through the tunnel while you were offing Voldemort, to get reinforcements in case we needed them. Several members of the Order were going to come around through Hogsmeade. I suspect they've taken care of the Death Eaters by now."

"Mr. Weasley, why don't you and I go and make sure of that?" Severus suggested, and he and Ron approached the door to the shack. "Stay here until we ascertain that all is well."

After the two men left, Tevis approached Draco Malfoy, standing uncomfortably at the bottom of the stairs, aware that he had no business being in this group. "Thank you," she said, and with the arm that wasn't holding Saffron, she pulled him into a hug.

Surprised, Draco stood still for a moment, then allowed his arms to go around both mother and daughter. "You needn't thank me," he said stiffly. "I only did what anyone else would have done."

Tevis kissed his cheek, then pulled away. "But _you_ did it. So thank you."

Draco smiled at her, a genuinely warm smile.

When Ron came back with the all-clear, they formed a procession back to the castle: Ron and Hermione; Severus, who was levitating Voldemort's lifeless body before him, with Tevis and Saffron; and Harry and Draco. Halfway to the castle, with Saffron getting heavy in her arms, Tevis transferred her to her Uncle Harry, though Tevis had a hard time keeping her eyes off her daughter as they continued their trek.

Severus put an arm around his wife. "Are you all right, my dear?"

"I'm fine."

"You've never killed."

"No. But I wouldn't let him take one more piece of your soul. He'd taken enough. I figured I had a bit to spare," she explained.

Severus kept his eyes on his former master – wouldn't it be a shame if he dropped the dead bastard on the ground? "Thank you," he said.

"I love you, Severus," Tevis said, as though the decision had been the easiest in the world. "I'd do anything to keep you safe."

To hell with Voldemort. Severus stopped, turned to his wife, and took her in his arms. He kissed her soundly, while the rest of the group ground to a halt and looked on in amusement. Voldemort's body thumped to the ground when Severus lost the focus of his spell, but no one spared it a glance.

When they were finished, Severus levitated Voldemort again, and they finished their walk to the castle.

They'd expected to hear sounds of battle as they got closer to the castle, but all was quiet. They saw no one until they reached the Entrance Courtyard. Groups of people, students, families, and teachers, stood talking, but all noise ceased when Harry came into view, now leading the group at Severus' request, followed by Voldemort's floating corpse. Those in the courtyard came silently to form a line on both sides of the conquering heroes as they made their way toward the Great Hall, where they were met by Minerva McGonagall, who was positively beaming.

"Harry!" she said with great affection. "Is it done?"

"Yes, ma'am," Harry said simply. "We expected to find fighting here as well."

"There was," Minerva said, "until thirty minutes ago, when the Death Eaters suddenly just . . . stopped. They seemed confused. I suspect I now know why. They sensed when their leader was no more," she said, nodding at Voldemort's body. "Most of them were stunned during their moment of confusion, although a handful managed to slip away. Are you all right, all of you?"

"Yes," Harry answered. "What of the others?" he asked, not really wanting an answer. "We know about Fred already."

"Fred Weasley?" Severus asked. "Is he . . .?"

"Yes," Minerva confirmed. "Remus Lupin and Tonks as well I'm sorry to say."

Harry felt as though his knees might buckle at this news. Not Remus and Tonks! They'd only just found each other, just become parents. Another child growing up without his mum and dad. It was just too horrible to contemplate, so Harry tucked it away for later.

"There are others as well," Minerva went on gently. "But that can wait."

Kingsley Shacklebolt appeared behind Minerva. "I heard . . . ah, yes," he said with satisfaction, noting the body of Voldemort which Snape had allowed to settle on the ground. "You, Harry?" he asked in his rich baritone.

"No. I . . ."

"It was me," Tevis said. She knew Harry felt that not being able to finish Voldemort was a weakness, but she didn't think it was at all, and she didn't want to hear him "confess" to his inability to kill.

Surprised eyes turned on Tevis as more and more people began to stream out of the castle as word spread. Molly and Arthur Weasley burst through the crowd and made a beeline for Ron and drew him into a fierce hug.

Shacklebolt looked Tevis up and down, as though doubting someone of her size could have destroyed the monster that was Voldemort. Hermione was now the recipient of a Weasley hug.

"He had Saffron," Harry explained. "He used her to draw Severus here." His explanation was cut short by Mrs. Weasley hugging him vehemently.

"Ah," Shacklebolt said with a nod of understanding. "I expect it wasn't difficult to summon the requisite hatred to cast the killing curse, then."

"Oh no," Tevis disagreed. "It wasn't hatred that killed Voldemort. Hatred cannot destroy evil. Only love can do that. It was love that killed Voldemort." Mrs. Weasley had reached Tevis and now hugged her and Saffron.

"Just as Dumbledore always knew it would," Harry noted.

Once Mrs. Weasley released her, Tevis began to realize just how many people had come into the courtyard, and she began to get increasingly anxious, her breath coming now in shallow gasps, her heart beating a furious tattoo in her chest. She began to back away from them, instinctively seeking to put herself out of the middle of the growing crowd. These people had never seen her in full-out panic mode, but they were about to.

"Tevis? What's wrong?" Harry asked.

"Too . . . many . . . people," she panted, her eyes wide, seeking an exit as she clutched Saffron tightly in her arms. Too tightly, apparently, because the baby began to cry.

"I must get her away from here," Severus said.

"We'll need your statements," Shacklebolt called. "And we'll want the wand that did the . . . that cast the curse."

"You can call on us at the house," Severus informed him. "She's not giving up her wand until I've resecured our residence."

Shacklebolt knew he wasn't going to win an argument with Severus Snape right now, and he nodded.

"I have to see a man about a wand," Harry told Severus. "I'll be home as soon as I can. Be careful. There are still some Death Eaters on the loose."

"And you as well," Severus said. He put an arm around Tevis and began leading his family away. They'd disapparate as soon as they got back off the grounds. Home. They were going home. Severus was finally free.

##########

It was quite late before Harry finally made it back to Godric's Hollow. Severus was sitting in the kitchen, sipping a cup of tea, waiting for him.

"Sorry," Harry said. "That took a little longer than I thought it would."

"No matter," Severus assured him. "Have you eaten?"

"Yes," Harry said, tiredly dropping into a chair. "What I need now is some sleep. I feel like I've been awake for three straight days." That wasn't much of an exaggeration.

"What news do you have about other . . . casualties?"

Harry sighed. "There are fifty or so of ours dead. Many of them students. Colin Creevey of all people. He must have snuck back in after the underaged kids were evacuated."

"There was time to evacuate students?"

Harry sighed. "There's so much you don't know." He ran a hand through his hair. "Where's Tevis?"

"She's getting Saffron ready for bed. She hasn't been able to put the child down since we got her back."

"What happened? How did he get his hands on her?"

"That was my fault," Severus admitted. "I never told Tevis about the jinx on saying the Dark Lord's name." Snape didn't know if the jinx was still in effect and was reluctant to use the name given that several Death Eaters remained at large. He'd resurrected the safeguards around this house, and he didn't want to tempt fate. "She'd left Saffron in the garden for a moment. She said the name, and Death Eaters were here instantly. I rather imprudently ran out of the house and was stunned immediately. Tevis kept them from killing me, but they . . . they took Saffron. They told Tevis where they were taking her. They knew I'd follow. You know the rest."

Harry nodded and yawned, a huge, jaw-cracking yawn.

Severus stood up abruptly. "Come. You need sleep. Your story can wait until tomorrow."

Harry followed Severus up the stairs and into the bedroom. Tevis was sitting in the rocking chair, holding Saffron as she slept.

"Harry!" she said, standing up to hug Harry. Harry kissed Tevis on the forehead and stroked Saffron's head. "You were brilliant today," he told Tevis.

"I feel as though I should feel bad, taking a life like that," Tevis admitted. "But I find myself unable to. You look beat. Come to bed."

"I don't really think I'm up to . . ."

Tevis silenced him with a finger to his lips. "To _sleep_, Harry."

"Oh." He felt himself blushing.

While they'd been talking, Severus had changed into his night clothes. "Tevis, if you need to, the child can sleep with us."

"Bed will be a little small, don't you think?" She'd been planning to sleep sitting up in the rocking chair, holding her daughter, unable to put her down after almost losing her earlier today.

Severus gave her a look that said, "I'm not a wizard for nothing," and with a wave of his wand, the bed widened by three feet. Tevis smile gratefully.

"I'll take her while you change," Severus offered, and Tevis reluctantly handed the child over to him.

While Tevis got into her pajamas, Harry stripped to his boxers and climbed into the middle of the bed. Severus settled on one side of him and Tevis on the other after spelling the side of the bed so Saffron could not roll off. And despite his fatigue and Severus' willingness to wait until tomorrow for the full story, Harry started talking. He told them about finding the Hufflepuff cup and losing the sword; about the ride on the dragon; about seeing Voldemort searching for his horcruxes and his growing anger as he found they'd been taken, one by one; about the early part of the battle; about seeking out Voldemort in the Shrieking Shack and being surprised to find the Snapes there; about what had happened when Voldemort's killing curse had struck him.

"Oh, and I fixed my wand. With the Elder Wand," he finished.

"The Elder Wand," Severus repeated. "How did Dumbledore come into possession of the Elder Wand? And how did . . . Riddle come to have it?"

So Harry told them about Grindlewald and about Voldemort breaking into Dumbledore's tomb, about the legend concerning how the wand changed allegiance and how Voldemort had misinterpreted it. When he finished, he snuggled down on his pillow and yawned.

"Harry," Severus said, then stopped.

"Yes, Severus?"

"That was . . . well done, start to finish."

Harry swelled visibly under his praise, but because he was who he was, he couldn't leave it there. "Well, it wasn't without its mistakes along the way."

"No long-range strategic plan is. But you identified the horcruxes, and you destroyed them, one by one. Even the one that was yourself. I am very proud of you."

Harry couldn't speak for a moment, overwhelmed with pride at Severus' words. "I couldn't have done it without Ron and Hermione. Or without you two," he said, reaching out a hand to each of them. "And in the end, I couldn't do it. I was too . . ."

"If you say you were weak, I'm going to punch you," Tevis warned.

"Well, what would you call it?" Harry demanded.

"You are not weak," Severus said. "You are a typical Gryffindor." Normally this would have been an insult, but tonight it was anything but. "Now I suggest we all get some sleep. It has been an eventful day."

Severus spelled off the lights, and they all slid down under the covers. It seemed the most natural thing in the world for Harry to spoon himself up against Severus and then pull Tevis into the same position in front of him, leaving much of the magically-enlarged bed unused. And it was so easy to fall asleep sandwiched between the two people whom he loved like no others in this world.

##########

Two Months Later . . .

The Burrow and the yard surrounding it were filled with people, talking, laughing and celebrating the demise of the Dark Lord. In the two months since his downfall, every last remaining Death Eater had been tracked down and apprehended (or killed if they resisted). The first two weeks after the Battle for Hogwarts had been filled with too many funerals, but since then, it had been one party after another, everyone free to celebrate the end of the tyrant who had darkened the world for far too long. Harry had attended all of the funerals he could get to, but he avoided as many of the parties as he could. There was too much adulation going on wherever he went, and it made him uncomfortable.

But he couldn't miss this party, not after Fred's death and the loss of George's ear in the final battle and all that this family had done for him over the years. The Weasleys needed to feel joy again, and they'd have been upset if Harry had skived off.

"Here you are," Harry said to Tevis. "I've been looking for you." She was standing on a small incline overlooking the Weasley orchard, and she smiled at him warmly.

"It was getting to be a bit much," she confessed. "Funny how even a handful of Weasleys can seem like a large crowd."

Harry smiled at the truth of that statement. "Did I see Minerva talking to you before? She looked really serious."

"She wanted to ask me about Severus. About how our relationship began. I think she wants to ask him to come back to teach, but she was uncomfortable and wanted to know if he'd done anything inappropriate. Other than having sex with me, I mean," she said with an impish grin.

"What did you tell her?"

"I told her how much of a proper gentleman he was and how I practically threw myself at him and how many times I bounced off because he'd have nothing to do with me. I told her what happened the night we had sex the first time, how he'd been under the effects of the curses and the potions and I was too grief-stricken to be sensible enough to walk away. I think she understood. And I think Severus would really like to go back to teaching potions. I know it's hard for you to believe, but I think he missed it."

A some point in his past, that _would_ have been hard for Harry to believe, but not any more, now that he knew Severus better. "Where's Saffron?"

"Mrs. Weasley has her. I may never get her back. That woman needs a grandchild in a very bad way."

"I think Bill and Fleur may have an announcement to make in that regard," Harry intimated.

"Well, actually," Tevis said with a shy smile, "I've an announcement of my own to make."

Harry looked at her, surprised. "Are you . . . pregnant?"

Tevis nodded, unable to stop the huge smile that spread over her face. "Yes."

"Does Severus know?"

"Not yet. I just found out today. Maybe you should tell him. You told him about the first one, after all."

"Ah! There you are!" said the object of their discussion. "My two favorite grownup people in the whole world!" Severus flung an arm around each of their shoulders and pulled them into a clumsy embrace, causing both of them to look up at him.

"You're pissed!" Harry accused with a huge grin.

"Imposhible," Severus protested. "I only had one drink." He held up one hand, his thumb and finger about an centimeter apart, showing them how small his drink had been.

Harry laughed. "Was it the punch? In the blue bowl?"

Severus nodded and had to clutch them both tighter to keep from falling over. "Blue," he confirmed solemnly.

"George made that punch," Harry told Tevis. Nothing more needed to be said.

"Maybe you should sit down," Tevis suggested, amused.

Instead of sitting, Severus leaned toward his wife and kissed her heartily, noisily, with lots of tongue, for many seconds, one arm still around Harry's neck.

"What? I don't get one?" Harry asked in mock outrage after Severus finally pulled away from Tevis.

Needing no further prompting, Severus kissed Harry in the same way and for the same length of time he'd kissed Tevis. "Wow! You really _are_ sloshed!" Harry said when Severus finally pulled away from him.

"I just love you," he pronounced.

"And we love you, too," Tevis assured him, sharing an amused look with Harry. "Now please sit before you fall down."

Severus dropped bonelessly to a sitting position, and Tevis sat beside him. He leaned into her for a moment, then stretched out in the grass, his head in her lap. And he began to sing, something that sounded much like a sea shanty involving a witch named Molly McBride and her philandering husband. Severus apparently had forgotten a good half of the words, and those he couldn't remember he mumbled or hummed over. What he lacked in ability, he was compensating for with volume.

Harry was laughing so hard he began to snort. Tevis, too, was chuckling at her husband's uncharacteristic behavior as she stroked his hair back away from his face.

And as much fun as it was to watch, Harry drew a vial from his pocket and handed it to Tevis. "Antidote," he explained when he could breathe properly. "George gave it to me earlier in case I was foolish enough to try the punch."

"Severus!" Tevis interrupted.

"So she hexed him right in the arse!" he finished, his bass wobbly.

"Wise woman, that Molly McBride," Tevis noted, looking down at Severus. "Open your mouth," she ordered.

Severus immediately clamped his lips shut. "Why?" he muttered out.

"I have something that will make you feeling better."

"I already feel damned good," he assured her through his mostly-closed lips.

"All right. Maybe you could sing me that song again. I _really_ like it."

"Really? You did?" he asked, surprised and pleased. "My father always told me I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket."

Tevis stroked his head softly. "Your father was wrong." And an idiot. And a sadist. And a bully. "You sing beautifully. Sing for me, Severus."

And, of course, as soon as Severus opened his mouth to sing, Tevis poured the antidote in and clamped his jaw tight so he'd have no choice but to swallow it.

"Smooth," Harry noted with approval.

"Thank you," Tevis said, rather proud of herself.

Severus sputtered and coughed for a time but finally looked up at his wife. "Why am I on the ground?"

"You had a little too much to drink," she told him.

"Nonsense!" he said, sitting up quickly. Harry offered him a hand and pulled Severus to his feet. After Severus had brushed himself clean, he assisted Tevis to her feet. "I don't over-indulge in public," he assured them.

"You didn't count on George Weasley," Harry explained.

Severus began to look nervous. "What did I do?"

"Well, I don't know what you did over there," said Tevis, "but you sang Harry and me a song."

Snape looked so appalled, Harry couldn't help piling it on. "And you kissed me," he said. "Right out in public. Where everyone could see."

"I . . . kissed you?"

"Yup," Harry confirmed proudly. "Used your tongue and everything."

Severus looked green now, even though the antidote contained an anti-hangover potion. "I don't feel well."

"Maybe you're suffering from morning sickness," Harry suggested. "I've heard that some blokes feel sick when their wives are pregnant."

Severus snorted. "Morning sickness!" he said dismissively. "That's ridic–" He slanted a look at Tevis, who smiled at him. "You're pregnant?"

Tevis' mouth twitched, and she smiled at him again and nodded.

"Well, this is . . ." Severus seemed at a loss for words.

"This is what, Severus?" Tevis asked, a small amount of fear creeping into her gut at his reaction to this news. He could hardly be surprised – they'd been using no form of birth control. The only real surprise was that it had taken this long.

A smile spread slowly across Severus' face. "This is wonderful!" he said with a little bit of his previous drunken giddiness. And he pulled Tevis into his arms.

When he let go of her, she looked up and him and said, "I thought you might be less than happy about this."

"I believe I told you I would like a male heir, to carry on the name."

"And if this is another girl?"

"Then I shall love her every bit as much as I do her sister," Severus avowed. "And we will simply have to keep trying." This last he said with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows.

Tevis laughed, happiness welling up inside her.

"We should perhaps go and collect said oldest child, before Molly Weasley indulges her beyond all redemption," Severus suggested. He put an arm around his wife's shoulders and led her back toward the noise of the party.

Harry trailed along beside them. "If you're planning on perfecting your baby-making technique tonight, I could come back to the house with you," he offered hopefully.

Severus stopped walking, and his arm dropped from Tevis' shoulders. Husband and wife exchanged a look, and Tevis nodded and resumed walking toward the party. Harry watched her go, wondering what that had been about, and Severus turned to face him. He placed a hand on each of the younger man's shoulders. "I think you know how I feel about you," Severus said earnestly. "But now that this is over and you are finally free to live your life, you should begin to do just that. You deserve to find a woman, or a man, whom you do not have to share. It is time for you to live, for yourself. It is the very least you deserve for all you have done for the rest of us.

Harry had been spending several nights a week in the house at Godric's Hollow, most of those in the Snapes' bed with them. He was happy to continue this as long as they'd let him.

"You understand, I trust," Severus continued, "that we are not rejecting you. You will always be a welcome guest in whatever home we happen to occupy. And I will always be honored to call you friend."

The emotion that filled Harry at this normally reticent man's words threatened to spill out of his eyes. Who would have thought, one short year ago, that this man's opinion would mean so much to him? Harry looked up into the dark eyes of his formerly hated potions professor. "Thank you," he said. "That means more to me than I can ever express."

Severus nodded and dropped his hands. "Live your life, Harry. Live it full and live it well. I wish for you all the happiness that I have found. Although I do hope you find it sooner."

Harry spied Tevis approaching with Saffron in her arms. "Some things are worth waiting for."

Severus followed his gaze. "That they are," he agreed. "But you are not me. You are young and attractive and generous with your heart, and whoever ends up with you will be very lucky indeed. Don't shut yourself away, as I did. Do you even realize what a miracle it is that this . . ." he looked at Tevis, "incredible woman looked twice at _me_, let alone was foolish enough to commit herself to me? I had convinced myself for many reasons that I was unworthy of so many things. But you, Harry – you are the epitome of all that is good in this world. Let yourself experience all of the good that life has to offer. It won't always be easy, but it will always, _always_ be worth it."

Tevis reached them now, and Severus reached for his child. He lifted her far over his head, making her squeal with delight. When he brought her back down, he settled her on his hip and they resumed walking back toward the party, their friends, their lives.

##########

Twelve years later . . .

Harry walked into the two-story stone house without knocking, the rooms almost as familiar to him as his own in London. It was a Friday afternoon in late spring, and the smell of quidditch was in the air. The final match of the year, Ravenclaw versus Slytherin, would take place tomorrow, just before lunch, and Harry had come early to visit with his surrogate family.

The house was cool and quiet, which could only mean that everyone was outside. Harry dropped his things in the guest room (_his_ room) before making his way to the backyard. He heard voices well before he got there, and he knew he was on the right track.

He walked through the back door and took in the scene before him. Saffron Snape, now twelve and a half years old and a first-year Ravenclaw, circled the back yard on her broom, her long brown hair flying out behind her. She was quite a young beauty and obviously a good flyer (she'd better be, after the number of hours Harry had spent with her). She likely would have made her house team if they hadn't already had the best seeker Ravenclaw had seen in over a hundred years.

Saffron's younger sister, Allegra Eileen, recently turned eleven, was the spitting image of her sister with her brown hair and eyes as dark as night. She had her mother's round face and easy laugh, and she, too, was certain to break a few hearts in the upcoming years. She was flying around the yard solo as well, though she wasn't as daring as her sister and stayed much closer to the ground.

Snape child number three had also been a girl, Meadow Jane. At age seven, MJ closely resembled her two older sisters, as though they'd all been formed from the same mold. MJ was seated on a broom in front of her mother. Tevis was letting MJ steer, but Tevis was doing the work of keeping them balanced and aloft. MJ, always trying to keep up with her older sisters, always had a harried air about her, as though she'd been running for a while, maybe her whole life, and only now had stopped to catch her breath.

Then had come little Susanne Hermione, the first Snape child to break the tradition of brown-haired, dark-eyed daughters. Unfortunately for Suzie, her dark eye color wasn't the only thing she'd inherited from her father. Her hair was black as a raven's, and her mother kept it short because it was impossibly stringy and lifeless if left to grow long. She also had her father's nose and his long, gangly limbs, promising better-than-average height when she was fully grown. Suzie was the first Snape child who would likely never be called pretty by anyone who didn't take the time to get to know her. As if sensing her physical shortcomings, Suzie was much more reserved than her sisters and tended to get lost in the noise and hubbub of the House of Snape. She was not shy and would speak her mind to anyone who asked, but she didn't offer opinions and she didn't engage in pointless chatter. She was, however, the sweetest child imaginable, and it was impossible to know her for five minutes without being blessed in some way by an act of kindness: a flower picked, a picture drawn, a kiss bestowed. Suzie would turn five next month, and Harry had already received her hand-drawn invitation to the party. She was currently nestled in her father's arms as he, too, mounted aboard a broomstick, soared the skies in the backyard. Though Severus loved all of his children, little Suzie held a special place in his heart, because he'd given her the ammunition which other children would use to torment her when she left the shelter of her home. He knew how cruel children could be – he knew what she was in for when she started school, and he did all he could to let her know that he loved her beyond reason.

It was Tevis who first spotted Harry, and she immediately pointed her broom in his direction. She touched down, and Harry gave MJ a hand off, then gave her a quick hug and slipped her the obligatory galleon he always brought for each of the children before she ran off into the house. Tevis dismounted, leaned her broom against the house, and hugged Harry hard.

"It's so good to see you!" she said.

"You just saw me two months ago," he replied, hugging her back.

"Feels more like two years. How have you been?" she asked as she pulled away.

"I've been good. Great actually. And you?" he asked, patting the baby bump which had become visible since he'd seen her last.

"It's a boy!" she told him joyfully. "Finally! I told Severus this is absolutely it! No more! We'd have to have Minerva make us a bigger house."

After Voldemort's death, Minerva McGongall had been appointed Headmistress of Hogwarts. Her first official duty, after assuring herself that the man hadn't done anything despicably amoral with Tevis Talmadge, was to beg Severus Snape to return to Hogwarts as potions instructor. She'd offered him a raise and a house on the grounds so that he wouldn't have to leave his family every day. It had taken the Snapes no longer than ten seconds to accept, and they'd been here ever since. Severus had also accepted the role of Deputy Headmaster, but had given up his duties as Head of Slytherin House. His teaching duties and his growing family kept him busy enough.

"I have news, too," Harry told her. "Lawrence asked me to marry him."

This warranted another enthusiastic hug. Harry had met Lawrence Abbott two years ago, and they'd been together since. Harry had been in and out of relationships since besting Voldemort, and he'd had his heart broken twice (once by a man, once by a woman). Both times, the Snapes had been a source of consolation that they were uniquely situated to provide. But Lawrence, he knew, was "the one" that Severus had promised was waiting for him out there, and he'd been incredibly happy since they'd become serious about one another.

"Why didn't he come with you?" Tevis asked.

"He had to work. He sent his love."

"Well, give him a kiss for me and tell him how happy I am for you both. When's the big day?"

"What big day?" Severus asked as he landed beside them.

Harry took Suzie from Severus, and her thin arms snaked around his neck, pulling him into a hug. Harry hugged her back.

"Harry and Lawrence are getting married!" Tevis announced.

"That's great!" Severus said, genuinely pleased. He offered Harry a hand, and they shook heartily. "And it's about time!"

"Yes, well, you know those potion types. Everything has to be just perfect." Lawrence was a professor at a college for witches and wizards studying medicine. He was ten years older than Harry, a fact he had been self-conscious about until he'd met Severus and Tevis, who made the difference in his and Harry's ages seem inconsequential. Lawrence was gentle and patient and loved Harry fiercely.

"How is his work going?" Severus asked.

Harry and Lawrence had met when Harry needed a potions expert to assist a client with his defense. Harry had gone to the wizarding equivalent of law school after sitting his NEWTs and now represented witches and wizards accused of committing crimes who couldn't afford to hire a private solicitor. He worked for the Ministry, so the pay wasn't great, but Harry found the work tremendously satisfying. Severus had never gotten over being a little miffed that Harry hadn't asked him for his assistance on that case, but considering how everything had turned out, Harry thought he'd made the right decision.

Harry settled Suzie on his hip, her arms still around his neck, her head resting on his shoulder. "It's going well. He's researching some new thing that he told me all about and I promptly forgot."

"Shocking," Severus deadpanned.

"I'm sure he'd love to tell you all about it. He worships the ground you walk on, you know," Harry said with an injured little sniff.

Severus smiled widely, something Harry had never gotten over the shock of seeing. "Well then isn't it lucky that _I_ worship _you_, my young friend?" he said with a playful twinkle in his eyes.

Harry smiled back. "Your daddy's a big git," he whispered in Suzie's ear.

"No, he is not," she whispered back. No one insulted her daddy, not even her beloved Uncle Harry. "Are you coming to my party?"

"What party?" Harry teased. "Are you having a party? Why would you be having a party?"

"My birthday is coming up," she told him solemnly. Suzie never joked.

"Your birthday, that's right! I'd forgotten. I wouldn't miss that for the world," Harry assured her.

"Saffron! Allegra! Time to come down!" Tevis called.

The girls grumbled but came down to earth. Harry hugged both of them, bestowed his galleons on them (he gave two to Suzie), and they all went inside.

##########

Severus awoke at his usual time the following morning to a strange aroma. It wasn't the smell of coffee by itself that was strange: it was the fact that someone other than himself was up at this time of day. He rolled over to find his wife still asleep beside him, as per usual. Curious, Severus gently pressed his lips to Tevis' forehead and slipped out of bed. After a pit stop in the loo, Severus made his way downstairs.

What he found in his dining room surprised him more than a little. Harry Potter – bone idle, never-a-morning-person Harry Potter – hard at work at five in the morning. Severus poured himself a cup of coffee, leaned against the kitchen door frame, and sipped as he finished waking and watched the industrious young man.

Severus had never told anyone this, but he thought of his heart as a circle (not that ridiculous heart shape that some fool had dreamed up which had nothing to do with actual biology). The circle was divided into six equal sections, one for each of his children, with the extra one for Harry. Tevis was the thin but incredibly strong membrane which held everything together. Now that Harry was here, Severus' heart was full.

Harry had his laptop computer set up on the table. There were things in his ears that connected to that laptop with a wire. Severus marveled once again at how things had changed in the wizarding world in the last few years. The number of witches and wizards coming from Muggle families had increased dramatically since the last war, as though nature herself were compensating for the deaths of all those who had died and would not create their own next generations. These Muggle-borns, accustomed as they were to their electronic gadgets and their ability to communicate with each other instantly, were unwilling to do without them just because most of their lives were to be spent around magic. And young people working together with purpose, led by Hermione Granger (who still hadn't learned how to take no for an answer), were an unstoppable force, and they'd found a way around the restrictions that magic posed to electronic gadgets. Students now had personal music listening devices, telephones they carried in their pockets, and computers in their dormitory rooms. Hogwarts had even instituted a computer class, for those purebloods whose families had never heard of electronics, a class which staff had been firmly requested to avail themselves of, and a class which Severus had to this point managed to avoid. So he couldn't have used the gadgets Harry had arrayed across the table, but he knew what they were.

Harry was clearly listening to something through his earphones, and he was taking notes furiously on a legal pad as he did so. Every now and then he whispered to himself, mostly words like "idiot" and "moron."

Severus finally grew tired of standing and sat himself down at the table. Startled, Harry jerked back, pulling the buds from his ears.

"Sorry," Severus said, rather insincerely, "didn't mean to startle you."

Harry reached over to pause the recording. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

"No. I'm always up at this time. I don't remember you ever being so industrious so early."

Harry reached his hands up over his head and stretched backward in the chair. "Price I pay for taking the weekend off."

"What exactly is it that you are doing?"

"I picked up a couple of new clients yesterday. Brothers. Both arrested for thievery on Diagon Alley. I'm listening to Brother Number Two's questioning by the Aurors. All interviews are required by law to be recorded now, so I have to listen to them to make sure that the accuseds are made aware of their rights, which they were, especially of their right to ask for counsel, which they both were and both declined. Most of these idiots think they're smart enough to talk their way out of trouble, and they think that if they ask for a solicitor, the Aurors will assume their guilt. So they try to play it cool and talk their way out of it on their own. The problem is, most of them are just not smart enough to pull it off. Take these latest two." Harry was clearly warming to his subject.

"They're brothers, thieves by trade. Think Mundungus Fletcher, only somehow dumber. They have this competition, see. They start on opposite sides of the street, and they work their way down either side, and at the end, they compare what they've been able to nab. Whoever has less has to buy lunch. The Aurors got both of them, _separately,_ to confess all of that. And now they want their solicitor to get them off. Dumb, right?"

"Are they typical of the type of person you encounter?"

Harry thought about it. "I'd say the dumb criminal that's caught easily is probably half of what I see. Most of the rest of them are caught up in circumstances that spiral out of control because they're drinking or with people they probably shouldn't be. A small percentage of them are just desperate and feel compelled to do whatever it is that got them into trouble. An even smaller percentage of them are innocent and really need my help."

"But you like helping all of them," Severus guessed.

Harry smiled in acknowledgment. "I do."

"Are you happy, Harry?"

The question had a serious undertone to it that Harry couldn't fail to hear, and he stared at Severus a moment before answering. "I am. Happier than I ever thought I could be. And not just with the job."

"Good," Severus replied. "More coffee?"

"Um sure," Harry said.

Severus took Harry's cup and his own back to the kitchen, filled them, and returned to the table. He placed both cups on the table, knelt on one knee next to Harry's chair, and leaned in and kissed him, passionately and aggressively. Surprised by the move, but trusting implicitly in Severus and his intentions, Harry closed his eyes and returned the kiss with equal ardor. Both men kept their hands to themselves until the very end of the kiss when Severus raised one hand and caressed Harry's cheek.

"What was that for?" Harry asked in wonder.

"If I had known that the last time I kissed you would the last, I would have made the most of it. I didn't know, so I didn't, and now . . . I have." Severus returned to his chair and sat.

"Thank you," Harry said simply.

"Have you told Lawrence about your relationship with us?" Severus asked.

"No. I'm not hiding it from him, and if he ever asked me about it, I wouldn't lie. But he's kind of conservative, and I'm not sure he'd understand what it was you both did for me. Kinda makes me wish _I'd _known the last time was going to be the last time," Harry joked, somewhat wistfully.

"I have every confidence that in Lawrence, you have finally found your soul mate," Severus said, "but you must know that if you ever need Tevis and me again, we are here for you, in whatever way you need us." His meaning was clear: if Harry's relationship with Lawrence ever did fall apart, the Snapes would be there to catch him once again.

Harry smiled warmly. "I appreciate that, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to need it. Remember how we talked about some things being worth waiting for? Well, I'm glad I waited."

Severus offered Harry his cup, and Harry touched his own to it, toasting to his future.

"So, Larry and Harry, eh?" Severus teased.

Harry snorted. Lawrence hated being called 'Larry', and Severus knew it. "Call us that again and I'll start referring to you as 'Sev and Tev'."

Their cozy little tete-a-tete was interrupted by the patter of small feet coming down the stairs. "Ah, Suzie, right on schedule." It was six a.m., Suzie's usual waking time. Severus got up before she even made it to the kitchen and poured a small amount of orange juice into a coffee cup identical to his own. He sat down again and waited for his youngest daughter to make her way to them.

"Good morning, princess," he said when she did.

"Good morning, daddy," she said and padded her way in her footed pajamas over to her father. She climbed into his lap, and together, the younger Snape clearly imitating the older Snape, they drank from their cups. When they'd set them down again, Suzie leaned upward and kissed her father on the cheek. Severus returned the favor.

"Hey, what am I, chopped liver? Don't I get any loving?" Harry complained.

"I think you'd better go over there and give Uncle Harry a hug before he cries," Severus suggested.

Harry put on the saddest face he could manage, and Suzie slid off her father's lap and came around to Harry's side of the table. Harry drew her into a tight hug and buried his nose in her neck, making her giggle. He kissed her neck, then blew a raspberry there, which he knew would send her into paroxysms of laughter. He wasn't disappointed. Harry couldn't help but smile as he held her until she calmed, then he set her back on her feet.

"I like it when you tickle me, Uncle Harry," she said very seriously.

"I know you do. I like it, too." Harry's heart always seemed to stretch a little when he talked with this earnest young thing, so homely on the outside and so beautiful on the inside. She had a kind of loveliness that was not apparent until you held her in your arms and felt her warm little body melt into your own. The unlikely angel returned to her father's lap, and she was content to just sit there and listen to the two men talk until she was forced to abandon her perch.

Some time later, Severus noted, "Almost seven. Mummy should be up soon. Unless your little brother woke her up early again."

Sure enough, five minutes later, Tevis made an appearance. "Morning all," she said as she went for the coffee pot.

"Should you be . . ." Harry started to ask, but he was stopped quickly by a raised hand from Severus and a frantic shake of his head.

Tevis turned and nearly snarled, "Should I be what?" She'd had the conversation with her husband about whether or not caffeine was good for the baby a hundred times. She had no intention of having it with Harry. At least not until she had some of said caffeine coursing through her.

"Should you be looking this beautiful this early in the morning?" Harry recovered nicely.

Tevis saw right through him, but she smiled sweetly and turned back to the coffee pot. Severus mouthed, "Nice save," at him.

"You're so sweet, Harry," she said. "Wish my own husband was half as attentive."

Severus tried to look hang dog and apologetic.

"Oh, give it up, husband of mine. You never could pull that look off." Tevis hadn't even turned around. She did now. "Good morning, Suzie Q. How would you like to go upstairs and wake your sisters up?"

"Can I?" she asked hopefully. Suzie always waited impatiently each morning for her sisters to wake up, knowing she would incur their wrath if she woke them up one minute before they had to be up.

"You can. They need to get up and eat and do their chores before we go to the game. Sorry, _match_. You have permission to jump on their beds if you need to."

"Goodie," Suzie said, still as serious as toast, jumping off her father's lap and heading up the stairs at a sedate pace. All three adults fondly watched her go.

"Harry, get your crap off my table," Tevis ordered, joining them in the dining room. "It's breakfast time."

Severus pulled Tevis into his lap and gave her a welcoming morning kiss. "You know I think you're beautiful. Why do I have to say it?"

Tevis snuggled into his embrace. "It's just nice to hear every once in a while."

"How often?" Severus asked. "I'll set myself an alarm. Every five minutes? Ten?"

"Shut up, you," Tevis said, hitting him playfully on the chest. Tevis finally realized what was all over the table. "Harry Potter, are you working while you're on vacation with us?"

"The price of being me," Harry said, starting to pack up. His phone rang, vibrating away on the table.

"Don't answer it," Severus and Tevis said together.

Harry picked it up. "It's Lawrence!" And of course he answered it. "Good morning, love. Oh, that's sweet. I miss you, too." Harry glanced up quickly at the couple across the table from him, his cheeks pinking slightly. Tevis made kissy faces at him, making Harry laugh. "No, it's just Tevis. She says hello." Harry spoke away from the phone. "Lawrence says hello to you both. What?" Back into the phone. "Oh, that's great." To the Snapes again: "He says he came make it to the match!" And back into the phone. "I can't wait to see you. You can stay the night, right? Of course it's all right with them," he said, looking up at Severus and Tevis again, who nodded. "Match is at eleven. Don't be late. Love you. I'll see you later." Harry hung up, smiling warmly. Yup, no one had ever made him feel like Lawrence did, just from hearing the sound of his voice.

Both of the Snapes, on the verge of making sarcastic comments to their friend, kept them to themselves when they saw Harry practically glowing with happiness. Suzie returned. "I woked them up," she announced.

"Good job, little helper," Tevis praised. "Want to help with the pancakes now?"

"Can we have sausage, too? Not the flat kind, but the round kind?"

"Just because you asked, we can. Go get me the flour, please."

##########

One by one, the other children came down the stairs, in various stages of dress and consciousness. As the food was passed around the table, and the older children became more awake, the group got more boisterous. Harry was happy here and couldn't help but think how lucky he was. Severus and Tevis had been so important to him for so long, and they and their children gave Harry the big family that he'd always longed for.

"Uncle Harry?"

"Yes, Allegra?"

"Can two boy wizards have a baby when they get married?" the child asked.

Harry looked at Severus for help, not because he didn't know the answer but because he didn't want to start down a road that could lead to lots of embarrassing questions about human reproduction. Severus only stared back, amusement showing on his face.

"Yes?" Harry answered hesitantly.

"Will you and Uncle Lawrence have a baby?" This from Saffron, who, her parents knew, understood the basic concept about what a man and a woman did to produce a baby. If any embarrassing questions were going to be asked about how two men could do that, they would come from her.

"I don't know, Saffron," Harry said. "We haven't really talked about it." They actually had, but he wasn't going to go into that now with children present.

"You could call him Joe," Meadow offered helpfully, which made Harry laugh.

"That's a stupid name!" Saffron scoffed.

"No, it's not," Meadow argued. "I like it! When I have a baby, I'm gonna name him Joe!"

"Girls," Tevis said, a warning note in her voice. "Could we not have this argument at the table?"

"Baby," Saffron whispered under her breath, the insult directed at her sister. Meadow stuck her tongue out in return.

"Ladies, enough," Severus ordered mildly, and their contrary behavior ceased at once, as it always did when their father spoke.

"Uncle Harry?" Suzie spoke up. She'd been watching and listening, as she always did.

"Yes, hon?"

"If you and Uncle Lawrence have a baby, will you still love _us?"_

Harry had to swallow hard to dislodge the ball of emotion that formed in his throat. "I'll not stop loving all of you until the day I die. Nothing could ever change that. Not a baby, not ten babies, not anything."

"Baby brother, too?" Suzie persisted. "'Cause he's not borned yet."

"Baby brother, too," Harry assured her.

"Good," Suzie said and bit into her sausage. All was right in her world.

Severus and Tevis smiled at him from their opposite ends of the table.

Harry cleared his throat, needing to lighten the mood before he burst into tears right here in front of everyone. "So, Saffron, what are the chances of Ravenclaw beating the damned . . . I mean, bloody Slytherins today?"

The End

33


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